Lee A. McBride III

A leading voice in contemporary pragmatism presents a 21st-century presentation and interpretation of the tradition from the point of view of oppressed populations. Lee McBride III shows, for the first time, the practicality of a pragmatist philosophy for addressing liberation struggles in the American and Africana contexts. This powerful approach takes its impetus from Leonard Harris’s philosophy born of struggle. By connecting different philosophical, activistic and artistic perspectives, McBride offers fresh ways to think about philosophies of struggle. He brings together Charles S. Peirce, W.V.O. Quine, John Dewey, and Kwasi Wiredu to work out a naturalized tenable epistemology; R.W. Emerson, Richard Rorty, and Leonard Harris to discuss the role of poetry; Aimé Césaire, Sylvia Wynter, and Katherine McKittrick to cover the role of creative works in liberation and Aldo Leopold, Maria Mies, Vandana Shiva, and Erin McKenna to demonstrate regenerating ecosystems. Each foray develops a way of (re)imagining our ways of being and the norms and structures within which we live. They allow McBride to draw out conceptual and imaginative tools that may assist us in creative rebelliousness, in leaving, and shaping a future with less subjection and less degradation. Beautifully written, McBride's book extends the insurrectionist philosophical project in an important direction, expanding the conception of how and where insurrection needs to happen.

Ethics and Insurrection articulates an ethical position that takes critical pragmatism and Harrisian insurrectionist philosophy seriously. It suggests that there are values and norms that create boundaries that confine, reduce and circumscribe the actions we allow ourselves to consider. McBride argues that an insurrectionist ethos is integral in the disavowing of norms and traditions that justify or perpetuate oppression and that we must throw our faith behind something, some set of values, if we want a chance at shaping a future.This book encourages us to (re)imagine and shape futures with less subjection, less degradation. It urges us to interrogate and deconstruct those intervening background assumptions that authorize and reinforce the subordination of stigmatized groups. It implores us to pursue new conceptions of personhood and humanity, conceptions that forefront reciprocity and solidarity—conceptions that do not cast groups of human beings as inherently subhuman or naturally bereft of honor. And finally Ethics and Insurrection beseeches us to form new coalitions and bonds of trust, to engage in those forms of collective action likely to shape a better future.

Ethics and Insurrection articulates an ethical position that takes critical pragmatism and Harrisian insurrectionist philosophy seriously. It suggests that there are values and norms that create boundaries that confine, reduce and circumscribe the actions we allow ourselves to consider. McBride argues that an insurrectionist ethos is integral in the disavowing of norms and traditions that justify or perpetuate oppression and that we must throw our faith behind something, some set of values, if we want a chance at shaping a future.This book encourages us to (re)imagine and shape futures with less subjection, less degradation. It urges us to interrogate and deconstruct those intervening background assumptions that authorize and reinforce the subordination of stigmatized groups. It implores us to pursue new conceptions of personhood and humanity, conceptions that forefront reciprocity and solidarity—conceptions that do not cast groups of human beings as inherently subhuman or naturally bereft of honor. And finally Ethics and Insurrection beseeches us to form new coalitions and bonds of trust, to engage in those forms of collective action likely to shape a better future.