-
The Hegelian-Marxism of Du Bois: On the Meaning of Double Consciousness
Note: I wrote this paper during my first-year of college, while I was enrolled in Yale’s Directed Studies program. I wanted to share it unedited because, as I look back on my academic journey and intellectual growth, I come to the realization that I have traveled a long, long way in my quest for knowledge.…
-
Simone de Beauvoir on Freedom, Economic Injustice, and Resistance
Simone de Beauvoir (French, 1908-1986) is a philosopher of freedom. She thinks that man is free and ought to be free. When he acts, his actions must be unconstrained by any abstract moral rule – as Kant suggests – because abstract rules do not help in particular situations. Every particular situation has its own set…
-
JULY 26: A MOMENT FOR REFLECTION
(Liberia clocks 176 years today since gaining political independence on July 26, 1847. Yet, despite Liberia’s age, the nation remains one of the poorest in the world, plagued by rampant corruption and bad governance. The following is a short reflection piece I wrote back in 2019, as a call to reawaken our national consciousness. I…
-
Rousseau and the Problem of Modern Society
(It is Bastille Day – July 14, 2023 – the day that commemorates the French Revolution. On July 14, 1789, revolutionary elements stormed the Bastille, a symbol of dogmatic authority and political repression in the then Ancien Regime under King Louis XVI. This event is thought to have fully ushered in a new world,…
-
Freedom and Perfectibility in the Political Thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau
By Abraham Keita- Student, Yale University What is freedom, or stated more precisely, what does it mean to be free or have free will? Is freedom a natural condition of the individual? Does individual freedom find legitimacy and full expression in political or civil society, or does this society hinder it? In an attempt…
keita@abrahamkeita.com
Abraham M. Keita 