Toward a Global Idea of Race

Toward a Global Idea of Race

Denise Ferreira da Silva

Table of Contents

$25.00 paper
ISBN: 0-8166-4920-0
ISBN-13: 978-0-8166-4920-4

$75.00 cloth
ISBN: 0-8166-4919-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-8166-4919-8

Breaks open the concept of race in a modern, global world.

In this far-ranging and penetrating work, Denise Ferreira da Silva asks why, after more than five hundred years of violence perpetrated by Europeans against people of color, is there no ethical outrage?

Rejecting the prevailing view that social categories of difference such as race and culture operate solely as principles of exclusion, Silva presents a critique of modern thought that shows how racial knowledge and power produce global space. Looking at the United States and Brazil, she argues that modern subjects are formed in philosophical accounts that presume two ontological moments—historicity and globality—which are refigured in the concepts of the nation and the racial, respectively. By displacing historicity’s ontological prerogative, Silva proposes that the notion of racial difference governs the present global power configuration because it institutes moral regions not covered by the leading post-Enlightenment ethical ideals—namely, universality and self-determination.

By introducing a view of the racial as the signifier of globality, Toward a Global Idea of Race provides a new basis for the investigation of past and present modern social processes and contexts of subjection.

“Silva’s work is sure to spark animated debate, and have continuing impact on discussions around race, justice and the law.” —Law, Culture and the Humanities

Denise Ferreira da Silva is associate professor of sociology and American studies at the University of Southern California.

352 pages | 5 7⁄8 x 9 | 2007
Borderlines Series, volume 27

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments
Preface: Before the Event
Glossary
Introduction: A Death Foretold

1. The Transparency Thesis

Part 1. Homo Historicus
2. The Critique of Productive Reason
3. The Play of Reason
4. Transcendental Poesis

Part 2. Homo Scientificus
5. Productive Nomos
6. The Science of the Mind
7. The Sociologics of Racial Subjection

Part 3. Homo Modernus
8. Outlining the Global/Historical Subject
9. The Spirit of Liberalism
10. Tropical Democracy

Conclusion: Future Anterior
Notes
Bibliography
Index



Toward a Global Idea of Race Denise Ferreira da Silva Table of Contents		$25.00 paper ISBN: 0-8166-4920-0 ISBN-13: 978-0-8166-4920-4 $75.00 cloth ISBN: 0-8166-4919-7 ISBN-13: 978-0-8166-4919-8
Breaks open the concept of race in a modern, global world. In this far-ranging and penetrating work, Denise Ferreira da Silva asks why, after more than five hundred years of violence perpetrated by Europeans against people of color, is there no ethical outrage? Rejecting the prevailing view that social categories of difference such as race and culture operate solely as principles of exclusion, Silva presents a critique of modern thought that shows how racial knowledge and power produce global space. Looking at the United States and Brazil, she argues that modern subjects are formed in philosophical accounts that presume two ontological moments—historicity and globality—which are refigured in the concepts of the nation and the racial, respectively. By displacing historicity’s ontological prerogative, Silva proposes that the notion of racial difference governs the present global power configuration because it institutes moral regions not covered by the leading post-Enlightenment ethical ideals—namely, universality and self-determination. By introducing a view of the racial as the signifier of globality, Toward a Global Idea of Race provides a new basis for the investigation of past and present modern social processes and contexts of subjection. “Silva’s work is sure to spark animated debate, and have continuing impact on discussions around race, justice and the law.” —Law, Culture and the Humanities Denise Ferreira da Silva is associate professor of sociology and American studies at the University of Southern California. 352 pages \| 5 7⁄8 x 9 \| 2007 Borderlines Series, volume 27 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments Preface: Before the Event Glossary Introduction: A Death Foretold 1. The Transparency Thesis Part 1. Homo Historicus 2. The Critique of Productive Reason 3. The Play of Reason 4. Transcendental Poesis Part 2. Homo Scientificus 5. Productive Nomos 6. The Science of the Mind 7. The Sociologics of Racial Subjection Part 3. Homo Modernus 8. Outlining the Global/Historical Subject 9. The Spirit of Liberalism 10. Tropical Democracy Conclusion: Future Anterior Notes Bibliography Index