Routledge Freedom, Justice, and Decolonization

The eminent scholar Lewis R. Gordon offers a probing meditation on freedom, justice, and decolonization. What is there to be understood and done when it is evident that the search for justice, which dominates social and political philosophy of the North, is an insufficient approach for the achievements of dignity, freedom, liberation, and revolution? Gordon takes the reader on a journey as he interrogates a trail from colonized philosophy to re-imagining liberation and revolution to critical challenges raised by Afropessimism, theodicy, and looming catastrophe. He offers not forecast and foreclosure but instead an urgent call for dignifying and urgent acts of political commitment. Such movements take the form of examining what philosophy means in Africana philosophy, liberation in decolonial thought, and the decolonization of justice and normative life. Gordon issues a critique of the obstacles to cultivating emancipatory politics, challenging reductionist forms of thought that proffer harm and suffering as conditions of political appearance and the valorization of nonhuman being. He asserts instead emancipatory considerations for occluded forms of life and the irreplaceability of existence in the face of catastrophe and ruin, and he concludes, through a discussion with the Circassian philosopher and decolonial theorist, Madina Tlostanova, with the project of shifting the geography of reason. Review "Freedom, Justice, and Decolonization is a tour de force written by one of the most brilliant and visionary philosophers of our time. This book has never been more relevant at a time when millions have suffered through a terrifying pandemic and then cheered at the courageous and necessary challenge to antiblack racism in the streets of almost every city and town in the United States. In accordance with the mandate to shift the geographies of reason Gordon foregrounds philosophies and political theories of the Global South but only to broaden the reach of such endeavors to move to a universality not bogged down by the violence of colonialism. The great ideals of dignity, freedom, liberation, and justice are defended on every page infused with the lessons and demands of emancipation that inhere in the struggles for decolonization. This is not a trendy book that tries to show us that we have grown out of the great dream of a new species of humanity to use Fanon’s telling phrase. The opposite is the case; it calls us and inspires us to fight on for the new 'species.' This book is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the complexities of our time and cherishes the hope that we can create a world worthy of the ideas Gordon eloquently defends." Drucilla Cornell, Research Professor, University of Venda, Professor Emerita at Rutgers University "If you are interested in enlarging the scope of not just knowledge, but also your curiosity in the discipline of philosophy as not just a 'stand-in and interpreter' but instead the fluctuating plane interwoven in 'shifting the geography of reason,' you need to read this book. If you are interested in what can be learned about the connections between what we are used to thinking and our very different ways of thinking, you need to read this book. If you think that 'cultural politics,' 'multiculturalism,' 'diversity,' and 'tolerance' are overused and misused words, you need to read this book. If you are overwhelmed by 'pessimism of the intellect' and hope for some 'optimism of the will,' you need to read this book. Lastly, since you are not going to be traveling so much in the future, maybe you can travel in the different landscapes and different exchanges, by reading this book." Natalija Mićunović, Institute of Social Sciences, Belgrade, Serbia "In Freedom, Justice, and Decolonization, Gordon offers a profound and challenging discussion of topics both abstract and immediate to make a case for the pressing need for a radical and wide-ranging project of decolonization.