Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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This episode features esteemed philosopher Lucius Outlaw, professor emeritus of Vanderbilt University. In this thought-provoking conversation, Outlaw shares his remarkable journey from growing up in segregated Mississippi to becoming a respected philosophy professor, closely acquainted with influential figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Eric Fromm. The discussion weaves through topics like double consciousness, agape love, the philosophy of Hegel, and the transformational power of language. Outlaw also reflects on how shared experiences, dialogue, and love can create a more inclusive, understanding world. Tune in to explore how philosophical insights can shape and nurture community and personal growth.

00:00 Introduction to Hermeneutic Justice
01:30 Welcome to Love and Philosophy
01:39 Lucius Outlaw's Journey
02:04 Exploring Double Consciousness
03:43 Phenomenology and Du Bois
07:49 Challenges in Recording the Episode
10:38 Lucius Outlaw's Early Life in Mississippi
36:01 Academic Struggles and Determination
37:03 Intellectual Growth and Honors Program
37:16 Gender Dynamics and Respect for Women
38:24 Choosing Fisk and Academic Rigor
40:45 Dartmouth Experience and Scholarship Offer
42:38 Return to Fisk and Black Power Movement
48:33 Student Government and SNCC Chapter
52:14 Graduate School and Intellectual Influences
01:02:01 Hegel, Marcuse, and Dialectical Thinking
01:07:07 The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual
01:12:00 Reclaiming Negative Terms: From Black to Queer
01:14:17 The Struggle of Identity and Language
01:16:29 Navigating Predominantly White Institutions
01:19:33 Rehabilitating Whiteness: A Controversial Notion
01:23:52 The Role of Dialogue in Understanding
01:25:23 The Legacy of Reverend James Morris Lawson, Jr.
01:40:50 The Power of Nonviolence and Love
01:47:30 Final Reflections and Continuing the Legacy

youtube.com/shorts/SioQ7I5N6Sg?si=jJLtNrBEViVu0KlP

Lucius at Vanderbilt University: https://as.vanderbilt.edu/philosophy/bio/lucius-outlawjr/


W.E.B. Du Bois (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/dubois/)


James Morris Lawson Jr. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lawson_(activist))


Lucius with Angela Davis: swarthmorephoenix.com/2024/12/05/angela-davis-in-conversation-with-lucius-outlaw-a-critical-conversation-on-contemporary-crises

Photo from HBCU Radio Preservation Project: watch youtu.be/z5ikVSHL3ZM?si=g9QfRlI9wDhsaSLi

Lucius is the W. Alton Jones Chair, Emeritus Profeessor at Vanderbilt.
His research Areas are: "racial matters in socio-political life, in the United States in particular, and in legacies and practices of European and Euro-American Philosophy; Social and Political Philosophy; Africana Philosophy (African; African American, for example, Martin Delany, W.E.B. Du Bois, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, among others); American Philosophy.SpecializationsAfrican, African American, Continental, History of Philosophy, Social and Political"
Representative Publications
"On Cornel West on W.E.B. Du Bois" Cornel West: a Critical Reader, George Yancy, ed. (Blackwell 2001)."'Multiculturalism,' Citizenship, Education, and American Liberal Democracy,"Theorizing Multiculturalism: A Guide to the Current Debate, Cynthia Willett, ed. (Blackwell 1998).On Race and Philosophy (Routledge 1996)."On W.E.B. Du Bois's 'The Conservation of Races'," Overcoming Racism and Sexism, Linda Bell and David Blumenfeld, ed. (Roman & Littlefield 1995).


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