{"title":"What’s the Matter with Value? Anna Julia Cooper’s Political-Economic Thought","authors":"Alena Wolflink","doi":"10.5325/CRITPHILRACE.9.1.0102","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article proceeds from a perspective on value and valuation that is distinct from moral and economic discourses of value in that it conceives of value as primarily, and even paradigmatically, political. Drawing from the insights of Anna Julia Cooper’s political-economic writings, this article argues that value and values, markets and morals, and the constellation of issues entangled in modern discourses of valuation all have the effect of devaluing black life. It explores the tensions between economics and moral sentiments, as Cooper depicts them in her discussion of the concepts of worth and material. Cooper demonstrates the concept of matter to rely upon a tension between material goods and the common good. Cooper’s discussion is therefore pivotal to understanding how political priorities mesh with systems of material interdependence.","PeriodicalId":43337,"journal":{"name":"Critical Philosophy of Race","volume":"9 1","pages":"102 - 125"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2021-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Critical Philosophy of Race","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.5325/CRITPHILRACE.9.1.0102","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ETHNIC STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
Abstract:This article proceeds from a perspective on value and valuation that is distinct from moral and economic discourses of value in that it conceives of value as primarily, and even paradigmatically, political. Drawing from the insights of Anna Julia Cooper’s political-economic writings, this article argues that value and values, markets and morals, and the constellation of issues entangled in modern discourses of valuation all have the effect of devaluing black life. It explores the tensions between economics and moral sentiments, as Cooper depicts them in her discussion of the concepts of worth and material. Cooper demonstrates the concept of matter to rely upon a tension between material goods and the common good. Cooper’s discussion is therefore pivotal to understanding how political priorities mesh with systems of material interdependence.
期刊介绍:
The critical philosophy of race consists in the philosophical examination of issues raised by the concept of race, the practices and mechanisms of racialization, and the persistence of various forms of racism across the world. Critical philosophy of race is a critical enterprise in three respects: it opposes racism in all its forms; it rejects the pseudosciences of old-fashioned biological racialism; and it denies that anti-racism and anti-racialism summarily eliminate race as a meaningful category of analysis. Critical philosophy of race is a philosophical enterprise because of its engagement with traditional philosophical questions and in its readiness to engage critically some of the traditional answers.