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In this book, Armondo R. Collins theorizes Black Nationalist rhetorical strategies as an avenue to better understanding African American communication practices. The author demonstrates how black rhetors use writing about God to create a language that reflects African Americans' shifting subjectivity within the American experience.

"The books in this series will discuss the emergence of intellectual traditions and of related new disciplines. The procedures, aims and vocabularies that were generated will be set in the context of the alternatives available within the contemporary frameworks of ideas and institutions. Through detailed studies of the evolution of such traditions, and their modification by different audiences, it is hoped that a new picture will form of the development of ideas in their concrete contexts. By this means, artificial distinctions between the history of philosophy, of the various sciences, of society and politics, and of literature may be seen to dissolve"--

Thomas Hobbes and John Locke sit together in the canon of political thought but are rarely treated in common historical accounts. This book narrates their intertwined careers during the Restoration period, when the two men found themselves in close proximity and entangled in many of the same political conflicts. Bringing new source material to bear, In the Shadow of Leviathan establishes the influence of Hobbesian thought over Locke, particularly in relation to the preeminent question of religious toleration. Excavating Hobbes's now forgotten case for a prudent, politique toleration gifted by sovereign power, Jeffrey R. Collins argues that modern, liberal thinking about toleration was transformed by Locke's gradual emancipation from this Hobbesian mode of thought. This book investigates those landmark events - the civil war, Restoration, the popish plot, the Revolution of 1688 - which eventually forced Locke to confront the limits of politique toleration, and to devise an account of religious freedom as an inalienable right.

Thomas Hobbes and the uses of Christianity -- Hobbes, the long parliament, and the Church of England -- Rise of the independents -- Leviathan and the Cromwellian revolution -- Hobbes among the Cromwellians -- The independents and the 'Religion of Thomas Hobbes' -- Response of the exiled church.

Critical Theory is generative for the advancement of subsequent types of progressive theories that seek justice across multiple spectrums of philosophies. Its origin manifested at the Frankfurt School, among a group of privileged White men seeking to eradicate social ills in Germany during World War II while lacking sufficient global experience and understanding to apply the theory to macro injustices. While critical theory did not redress the limitations of the intellectualized vision, the theory was reconceptualized as more encompassing with its forced relocation to the United States, though still limited in its application to the social ills of woman's suffrage and the civil rights movement of Blacks in the United States. In flux, the revised critical theory became propagative. Despite its limitations illustrated here in the work of W. E. B. Du Bois, Critical Theory gave rise to scholarships that highlight injustices across areas it did not foresee that include race, ethnicity, disability, gender, and anticolonialism. As a result of Critical Theory across modernities, some silenced voices can be heard, despite what some have labeled an exclusionary canon.

To challenge the Foucauldian legacy of Jeremy Bentham's panopticon prison, scholars often highlight Bentham's later writings on the democratic power of public opinion. In doing so, they reaffirm Bentham's reputation as a unreserved proponent of transparency. To recover the limits of Bentham's embrace of publicity, I examine the model of visibility exemplified by his designs for the Sotimion, a residence for unmarried, pregnant women. The Sotimion draws our attention to Bentham's appreciation for concealment as a method of preventing individual and social harms caused by publicity and his criticisms of ascetic sexual norms. By being able to see visitors without being seen by them, the residents of the Sotimion would have avoided social censure while continuing to meet with friends, family, and even lovers. The Sotimion designs eschewed the panoptic principle, the use of asymmetric surveillance to reform moral behavior, and offered what I call the "soteric principle," the use of asymmetric surveillance to protect the observer from punishment. By comparing the Sotimion to the Magdalen Hospital for Penitent Prostitutes and Bentham's discussions of panoptic institutions for women, I examine the Sotimion's distinctiveness while acknowledging its normalizing effects for residents from lower socioeconomic classes. Just as the panopticon captured Bentham's commitment to publicity, applying the soteric model to Bentham's theory of public opinion highlights his commitment to secrecy for protecting critics of government abuses from retribution.

AbstractResponding to socioeconomic inequality and the decline of political participation, theorists of "audience democracy" emphasize citizens' spectatorship of political leaders but neglect how citizens experience being watched themselves. I turn to Adam Smith's arguments about the effects of inequality on spectatorship, highlighting his criticisms of the public's disdain for people living in poverty. By comparing Smith's arguments about misperceptions of people living in poverty to his discussions of an innocent man accused of a crime, I show how mistaken spectators demoralize even morally judicious individuals. I also expand on an example of unjust censure that Smith suggests but does not discuss in detail: the social shame directed at a survivor of rape. I conclude by using Smith's insights to reflect on the social and interpersonal dynamics of surveillance that render contemporary welfare programs degrading for many participants and help transform socioeconomic inequality into political inequality.