Leonard Harris

Professor, Department of Philosophy. Editor of Philosophy Born of Struggle (1983) and three books on the philosopher Alain Locke. Harris is the author of “struggle philosophy,” an approach to philosophy that is different from the Socratic dialogue method, the ethics of insurrection, critical pragmatism, advocacy aesthetics and the concept of racism as “necro-being.” A graduate of Central State University, Ohio, and Cornel University, Harris is a professor of philosophy at Purdue University, Board member of the Philosophy Born of Struggle Association and the Alain L. Locke Society.

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New Book:
A Philosophy of Struggle: The Leonard Harris Reader

April 30, 2020

Collating, for the first time, the key writings of Leonard Harris, this volume introduces readers to a leading figure in African-American and liberatory thought.

Harris' writings on honor, insurrectionist ethics, tradition, and his work on Alain Locke have established him as a leading figure in critical philosophy. His timely and urgent responses to structural racism and structural violence mark him out as a bold cultural commentator and a deft theoretician.

The wealth and depth of Harris' writings are brought to the fore in this collection and the incisive introduction by Lee McBride serves to orient, contextualize, and frame an oeuvre that spans four decades. In his prolegomenon, Harris eschews the classical meaning of “philosophy,” supplanting it with an idiosyncratic conception of philosophy-philosophia nata ex conatu-that features an avowedly value-laden dimension. As well as serving as an introduction to Harris' philosophy, A Philosophy of Struggle provides new insights into how we ought conceptualize philosophy, race, tradition, and insurrection in the 21st century.