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Life
He calls himself a bluesman in the life of the mind, fusing the prophetic tradition of the Black church with pragmatist philosophy to ask what justice requires of people living through catastrophe.
He began as a medical student, became a psychologist, and ended as a philosopher, because the questions kept escaping the disciplines.
Connection
William James pragmatism recovered Cornel West — West's The American Evasion of Philosophy treats William James's pragmatism, alongside Emerson and Dewey, as an unfinished resource for American thought, one he fuses with the prophetic tradition of the Black church into what he calls prophetic pragmatism.
Ideas
Words
“Justice is what love looks like in public.”
“You can't lead the people if you don't love the people. You can't save the people if you don't serve the people.”
“Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.”
“The greatest use of a life is to spend it on something that will outlast it.”
Key Moments
1989
Publishes The American Evasion of Philosophy
1993
Publishes Race Matters
1876
Teaches psychology and philosophy at Harvard
1901-02
Gifford Lectures at Edinburgh
Works
Race Matters
The Varieties of Religious Experience