Caliban's Reason: Introducing Afro-Caribbean Philosophy

by Paget Henry

Paget introduces the general reader to Afro-Caribbean philosophy in this ground-breaking work. Since Afro-Caribbean thought is inherently hybrid in nature, he traces the roots of this discourse in traditional African thought and in the Christian and Enlightenment traditions of Western Europe.

Genres: Philosophy, Africa, Nonfiction

318 pages, Paperback

First published March 7, 2000

About the author

Professor Paget Henry

Reviews

[Andy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The idea behind it - to excavate the influence of "African" philosophy on Caribbean thought - is an admirable one. The execution however suffers. To begin with, it is turgidly and horribly written. Contains many instances of impenetrable academese. I'm not sure who Henry's editor was, but they need to be fired. He also leaves too many premises unexamined. His discussion of what constitutes a philosophical discourse is shallow, and this hurts the necessary primary argument that African thought can be thought of as philosophical. He does not engage with the debates launched by V.Y. Mudimbe in any but the most cursory of ways. Suffers from an Anglo-Caribbean bias, with little discussion of the French, Spanish or Dutch Caribbean intellectual traditions, aside from the requisite analysis of Frantz Fanon. Disappointing. Lewis R. Gordon's book remains the better, if still deeply flawed, volume.