Race, Time, and Utopia

Race, Time, and Utopia: Critical Theory and the Process of Emancipation, philosopher William M. Paris makes an important contribution to several related conversations. Paris's book offers one of the richest and most well-grounded recent accounts of utopia, firmly centering the question of class struggle and his distinctive understanding of race. The book is an attempt to reconstruct and interrogate "utopian tendencies that have been immanent in historical processes of emancipation from racial domination." This is a multifaceted project that presents a new and exciting understanding of political and economic emancipation, drawing heavily on both the theorists of hope and utopia and the Black radical tradition generally.

Race, Time, and Utopia: Critical Theory and the Process of Emancipation, philosopher William M. Paris makes an important contribution to several related conversations. Paris's book offers one of the richest and most well-grounded recent accounts of utopia, firmly centering the question of class struggle and his distinctive understanding of race. The book is an attempt to reconstruct and interrogate "utopian tendencies that have been immanent in historical processes of emancipation from racial domination." This is a multifaceted project that presents a new and exciting understanding of political and economic emancipation, drawing heavily on both the theorists of hope and utopia and the Black radical tradition generally.

Paris points to the importance of Black political thought for formulating possible forms of social life that would allow society to transcend the present norms and practices of racial and capitalist domination. Recommended.

William Paris is an Assistant Professor in Philosophy at the University of Toronto. He is also an Associate Editor for the journal Critical Philosophy of Race. His research focuses on History of African American philosophy, 20th century continental philosophy, and political philosophy. He has published on Frantz Fanon and Gender, Sylvia Wynter's phenomenology of imagination, and C.L.R. James and Hannah Arendt. He is also a co-host of the podcast What's Left of Philosophy? His website is williammparis.com.