"...this volume is a cutting-edge contribution to the debate on African ethnophilosophy."
--Choice
"Paget Henry refines the intellectual life of the Caribbean like an alchemist [which results] in a high level
of sophistication and reflexivity. The result is both a revealing work of intellectual history, and a new impetus
in philosophy."
--Randall Collins, author of The Sociology of Philosophies:A Global Theory of Intellectual Change
"...will provoke lively discussion and stimulate a healthy debate about the process and content of Caribbean
creolization and philosophy."
--Roberto Marquez, William R. Kenan Professor of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Mount Holyoke College
"...this volume is a cutting-edge contribution to the debate on African enthophilosophy.."
--T.L. Lott, San Jose State University
Submitted by Routledge Web Site, December, 2001
Summary
Caliban's Reason introduces the general reader to Afro-Caribbean philosophy. In this ground-breaking work, Paget
Henry traces the roots of this discourse in traditional African thought and in the Christian and Enlightenment
traditions of Western Europe. Since Afro-Caribbean thought is inherently hybrid in nature and marked by strong
competition between its European and African orientations, Henry highlights its four main influences--traditional
African philosophy, the Afro-Christian school, Poeticism and Historicism--as his organizing principle for discussion.
Offering a critical assessment of such writers as Wilson Harris, Derek Walcott, Edward Blyden, C.L.R. James and
George Padmore, Caliban's Reason renders a much-needed portrait of Afro-Caribbean philosophy and fills a significant
gap in the field.
