On Materialism, Freedom, and Self-Consciousness

Abstract

As a problem for thought, racial slavery is seated at the intersection of moral philosophy and philosophy of nature where the figure of the slave, a being who is wholly determined by external forces, serves as the negative measure of the capacity to make ethical judgments beyond one’s own private inclinations or exercise self-restraint for the sake of the common good. Recent theoretical interventions into our political-ecological predicament tend to split when it comes to the modern autonomous subject. This essay engages with contemporary theorizing on matters of materialism, freedom, and self-consciousness as they relate to our current predicament and to racial slavery and its system of classification.