The Ontology of PrejudiceThis book offers a bold and controversial new thesis regarding the nature of prejudice. The authors' central claim is that prejudice is not simply learned, rather it is predisposed in all human beings and is thus the foundation for ethical valuation. They aim to destroy the illusion that prejudice is merely the result of learned beliefs, socially conditioned attitudes, or pathological states of development. Contrary to traditional accounts, prejudice itself is not a negative attribute of human nature, rather it is the necessary precondition for the self and civilization to emerge. Defined as the preferential self-expression of valuation, prejudice gives rise to greater existential complexities and novelties that elevate selfhood and society to higher states of ethical realization. Rather than offer another contribution that highlights the destructive nature of prejudice, Mills and Polanowski address the ontological, psychological, and dialectical origins of prejudice as it manifests itself in the process of selfhood and culture. They provide an original conceptualization of the phenomenology of prejudice and its dialectical instantiation in the ontology of the individual, worldhood, and the very structures of subjectivity. As a unique synthesis of psychoanalysis, Hegelian idealism, Heideggerian existential ontology, and Whiteheadian process philosophy, prejudice is the indispensable ground for humanity to actualize its highest potentiality-for-Being. The striking result is (1) a revolutionary theory of human nature, (2) a new ethical system, and (3) the elevation of dialectical ethics to the domain of metaphysics. |
Contents
| 1 | |
ONE The Ontology of Prejudice | 11 |
The Universal A Priori Nature of Prejudice | 15 |
From Thought to Desire | 19 |
The Unconscious Organization of Prejudice | 21 |
Selfhood and Identification | 29 |
The Dialectic of Identity | 32 |
Is Racism Predisposed? | 38 |
Dasein in Bad Faith | 74 |
The False Self | 77 |
The Call of Conscience | 82 |
FOUR Dialectical Ethics | 89 |
Reformulation of Hegels Ethical Thought | 91 |
Hegels Logic of the Dialectic | 94 |
Hegels Dialectical Method | 95 |
The Operations of Thinking | 97 |
TWO The Phenomenology of Prejudice | 45 |
The Illogic of Prejudice | 53 |
Prejudice in the Mode of Racial Identity | 59 |
Black Identity as Bad Faith | 61 |
White Identity as Bad Faith | 64 |
The Dialectical Dilemma of Racial Identity | 66 |
THREE The Search for Authenticity | 69 |
Dasein and Fallenness | 71 |
The Dialectic of Being | 100 |
The Essence of the Dialectic | 102 |
Conceptual Understanding | 104 |
FIVE Ethics in Process | 113 |
SIX The Metaphysics of Morals | 153 |
WORKS CITED | 179 |
ABOUT THE AUTHORS | 191 |
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Common terms and phrases
absolute actual entities actual occasions authentic Axiology bad faith becomes Being-in-the-world Being-with Black cognition collective communal complexity Concept concrescing consciousness constitutive context cultural cultural relativism define desire determined dialectical ethics dialectical process differentiation dynamic emerging essence ethical subjectivism evil evolutionary evolutionary epistemology existence existential reality experience expression facticity false Dasein forms freedom Freud ground Hegel Heidegger hence her/his historical human identification inauthentic individual instantiated internal intersubjective intrapsychic Inupiat Jon Mills judgments Logic mental metaphysical modes moral moral absolutism movement narcissism narcissistic nature negation negative notion novelty object opposition organization particular philosophy positive possible predisposition prehensions prejudicial dialectics priori process philosophy psychic psychoanalysis psychological pure race racial identity racism reason reflection relation relativism Science of Logic selfhood selfobject sense social ideals society strives subjectivity sublated superego theory thinking transcend truth ultimately unconscious understanding unfolding unification unique unity universal valuation value systems Whitehead Whiteheadian wish