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Charles W. Mills

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Charles W. Mills
Born
Charles Wade Mills

(1951-01-03)January 3, 1951
London, England, UK
DiedSeptember 20, 2021(2021-09-20)(aged 70)
Evanston, Illinois,US
AwardsGustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award
Academic background
Education
ThesisThe Concept of Ideology in the Thought of Marx and Engels(1985)
Academic work
Era20th-century philosophy
Notable worksThe Racial Contract

Charles Wade Mills(January 3, 1951 – September 20, 2021) was a Jamaican philosopher who was a professor atGraduate Center, CUNY,andNorthwestern University.Born in London, Mills grew up in Jamaica and later became a United States citizen. He was educated at theUniversity of the West Indiesand theUniversity of Toronto.

Early life and education

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Charles Wade Mills was born on January 3, 1951, in London, England, to Winnifred andGladstone Mills.[1][2]His parents were graduate students in London and moved toKingston, Jamaica,shortly after he was born.[3]He grew up in Kingston.[4][5]

Mills received a BSc in physics at theUniversity of the West Indiesin 1971 and an MA and PhD in philosophy from theUniversity of Torontoin 1976 and 1985, respectively.[6]His dissertation was titledThe Concept of Ideology in the Thought of Marx and Engels.[7]He endorsedhistorical materialismuntil the 1990s.[8]While at the University of Toronto, Mills helped to unionizeteaching assistants.[5]

Academic career

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Mills taught physics in Kingston from 1971 to 1973 at theCollege of Arts, Science and Technology,and from 1976 to 1977 atCampion College;he later taught philosophy at theUniversity of Oklahoma(1987–90) and theUniversity of Illinois at Chicago(1990–2007) where he was a UIC Distinguished Professor.[6]

Mills was John Evans Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy atNorthwestern University,before his appointment as Distinguished Professor atGraduate Center, CUNY,in August 2016.[9][10][11]He was elected a fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciencesin 2017.[12]He gave theTanner Lectures on Human Valuesin 2020.[13]

Views

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Over his career, Mills published six books and over 100 articles.[13]Shannon Sullivanargues that Mills's oeuvre can be understood through the concept ofsmadditizin,a word Mills used in the title of a 1997 article. Sullivan, quoting Mills, describessmadditizinas "the struggle to have one's personhoodrecognized"[emphasis in original]. She argues that, no matter whether he embracedMarxism,Black radicalism, or racial liberalism, Mills's work opposed the non-recognition of persons.[14]According to an obituary inCBC News,Mills is regarded as a pioneer incritical race theoryand the philosophy ofrace.[5]Philosopher Christopher Lebron described him inThe Nationas a "blackSocrates".[3]

Mills's bookThe Racial Contract(1997) won aGustavus Myers Outstanding Book Awardfor the study of bigotry and human rights in North America.[15]The Racial Contractposits that thesocial contractis really a contract based on the notion of white domination.[3]According toJamelle Bouie,the work argues that "classic contractarian theories", such as those proposed by "Thomas Hobbes,John Locke,Jean-Jacques Rousseau,andImmanuel Kant","were built on an assumption of white racial domination, a racial contract, so to speak ".[16]

Later in his career, according toTommie Shelby,Mills launched a sustained critique ofJohn Rawls'scontractariantheory of justice. Shelby notes that Mills rejected the Rawlsian turn toideal theoryin political philosophy in favor of an approach that takes careful account of the realities of oppression.[17]Despite his critique of Rawls, however, Mills came to endorse a version of liberalism inBlack Rights/White Wrongs: The Critique of Racial Liberalism,suggesting that the history of liberalism reveals the dismantling of social hierarchies.[18]ReviewingBlack Rights/White WrongsinPolitical Theory,Ainsley LeSure observes that "[t]hough [Mills] acknowledges that racial justice need not be realized through the liberal tradition, he affirms that it can."[19]

Personal life

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Mills has been described as "Afro-Caribbean",[20]"Caribbean",[21][22]and "Jamaican".[23]He described himself as "Caribbean-American".[24]

In a 2014 publication, Mills stated, "I was a citizen of a small Third World country, Jamaica, which owed its very existence to… oppressive international forces."[25]As of October 2020,Mills was an American citizen.[4]

Mills was diagnosed with metastatic cancer in May 2021.[5]He died of cancer inEvanston, Illinois,on September 20, 2021.[1]

Books

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  • Mills, Charles W. (January 27, 2014) [1997].The Racial Contract.Cornell University Press.doi:10.7591/9780801471353.ISBN978-0-8014-7135-3.JSTOR10.7591/j.ctt5hh1wj.S2CID153842070.[26][27][28]
  • Mills, Charles W. (December 18, 2015) [1998].Blackness Visible: Essays on Philosophy and Race.Cornell University Press.doi:10.7591/9781501702952.ISBN978-1-5017-0295-2.JSTOR10.7591/j.ctt1tm7j79.[29]
  • From Class to Race: Essays in White Marxism and Black Radicalism.Rowman & Littlefield.2003.ISBN0-7425-1301-7.OCLC52216116.[30][31]
  • Mills, Charles W.; Sample, Ruth J.; Sterba, James P., eds. (2004).Philosophy: The Big Questions.Blackwell.ISBN1-4051-0828-2.OCLC52386246.
  • Mills, Charles W.;Pateman, Carole(2013).The Contract and Domination.Polity.ISBN978-0-7456-3621-4.OCLC843202341.[32]
  • Radical Theory, Caribbean Reality: Race, Class and Social Domination.University of the West Indies Press.2010.ISBN978-1-4619-0675-9.OCLC759207752.[33]
  • Mills, Charles W. (May 25, 2017).Black Rights/White Wrongs: The Critique of Racial Liberalism.Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190245412.001.0001.ISBN978-0-19-024541-2.[18][19][34]

References

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  1. ^abRisen, Clay (September 27, 2021)."Charles W. Mills, Philosopher of Race and Liberalism, Dies at 70".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.Archivedfrom the original on November 20, 2021.RetrievedSeptember 27,2021.
  2. ^Herdeck, Donald(1979). Herdeck, Donald E. (ed.).Caribbean writers: a bio-bibliographical-critical encyclopedia.Three Continents Press. pp.146–147.ISBN0-914478-74-5.OCLC5223510.
  3. ^abcSmith, Harrison (October 1, 2021)."Charles W. Mills, incisive philosopher of liberalism and race, dies at 70".The Washington Post.ISSN0190-8286.Archivedfrom the original on October 4, 2021.RetrievedOctober 15,2021.
  4. ^abLim, Woojin (October 29, 2020)."'The Racial Contract': Interview with Philosopher Charles W. Mills ".Harvard Political Review.Archivedfrom the original on October 29, 2020.RetrievedSeptember 25,2021.
  5. ^abcdRaza, Ali (October 10, 2021)."Toronto-educated philosopher and critical race theory pioneer Charles W. Mills dies at 70".CBC News.Archivedfrom the original on October 12, 2021.RetrievedOctober 15,2021.
  6. ^ab"Charles W. Mills (Curriculum vitae)".Archivedfrom the original on March 1, 2021.RetrievedSeptember 21,2021.
  7. ^"Search - Theses Canada".Library and Archives Canada.March 8, 2019.Archivedfrom the original on November 27, 2021.RetrievedSeptember 21,2021.
  8. ^Loggins, Jared (September 24, 2021)."The House That Charles Built".Dissent.Archivedfrom the original on September 24, 2021.RetrievedSeptember 24,2021.
  9. ^"Mills from Northwestern to CUNY Graduate Center".Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog.November 16, 2015.Archivedfrom the original on October 8, 2016.RetrievedSeptember 21,2021.
  10. ^"Professor Charles Mills to Join Graduate Center Philosophy Program".Graduate Center, CUNY.November 28, 2015.Archivedfrom the original on January 4, 2017.RetrievedSeptember 21,2021.
  11. ^"Charles W. Mills".Graduate Center, CUNY.Archivedfrom the original on June 18, 2021.RetrievedSeptember 24,2021.
  12. ^"Charles W. Mills".American Academy of Arts and Sciences.Archivedfrom the original on September 21, 2021.RetrievedSeptember 21,2021.
  13. ^abTáíwò, Olúfémi O. (September 27, 2021)."The Radical Generosity of Charles Mills".The Nation.ISSN0027-8378.Archivedfrom the original on September 27, 2021.RetrievedSeptember 27,2021.
  14. ^Sullivan, Shannon(2017). "Smadditizin' Across the Years: Race and Class in the Work of Charles Mills".Critical Philosophy of Race.5(1): 1–18.doi:10.5325/critphilrace.5.1.0001.S2CID114705576.
  15. ^Roberts, Neil (April 3, 2017)."The Critique of Racial Liberalism: An Interview with Charles W. Mills".AAIHS.Archivedfrom the original on April 20, 2021.RetrievedSeptember 21,2021.
  16. ^Bouie, Jamelle(September 25, 2021)."The World Lost a Great Philosopher This Week".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.Archivedfrom the original on September 25, 2021.RetrievedSeptember 25,2021.
  17. ^Shelby, Tommie(2013). "Racial Realities and Corrective Justice".Critical Philosophy of Race.1(2): 145–162.doi:10.5325/critphilrace.1.2.0145.
  18. ^abHughey, Matthew W. (February 19, 2018). "Four thoughts on Charles Mills – Black rights/white wrongs: the critique of racial liberalism".Ethnic and Racial Studies.41(3): 523–531.doi:10.1080/01419870.2018.1389967.ISSN0141-9870.S2CID148904929.
  19. ^abLeSure, Ainsley (October 2018).Political Theory.46(5): 801–805.doi:10.1177/0090591717750345.ISSN0090-5917.S2CID149215821.{{cite journal}}:CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  20. ^Ferguson, Stephen C. (January 10, 2017). "Exploring the Matter of Race". InZack, Naomi(ed.).The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Race.Vol. 1.Oxford University Press.p. 265.doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190236953.013.56.
  21. ^Rabaka, Reiland (2011).Hip Hop's Inheritance: From the Harlem Renaissance to the Hip Hop Feminist Movement.Le xing ton Books.p. 45.ISBN978-0-7391-6480-8.
  22. ^Murphy, Philip (August 1, 2018).The Empire's New Clothes: The Myth of the Commonwealth.Oxford University Press.p. 120.ISBN978-0-19-093478-1.
  23. ^Gordon, Jane Anna (March 5, 2020). "Mapping Afro-Caribbean Political Thought". In Jenco, Leigh K.; Idris, Murad; Thomas, Megan C. (eds.).The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Political Theory.Oxford University Press.p. 148.doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190253752.013.25.ISBN978-0-19-025375-2.
  24. ^Mills, Charles W. (2009). "Rousseau, the Master's Tools, and Anti-Contractarian Contractarianism".The CLR James Journal.15(1): 92–112.doi:10.5840/clrjames20091515.ISSN2167-4256.JSTOR26770019.
  25. ^Anievas, Alexander; Manchanda, Nivi; Shilliam, Robbie, eds. (October 30, 2014). "Unwriting and unwhitening the world".Race and Racism in International Relations.Routledge.p. 203.doi:10.4324/9781315857299-20(inactive June 7, 2024).ISBN978-1-315-85729-9.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of June 2024 (link)
  26. ^Cohen, Philip N. (June 1999).Review of Radical Political Economics.31(2): 102–105.doi:10.1177/048661349903100208.ISSN0486-6134.S2CID153979951.{{cite journal}}:CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  27. ^Ahmed, Sara (1999).Women's Philosophy Review.21(21): 63–66.doi:10.5840/wpr1999219.ISSN1369-4324.{{cite journal}}:CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  28. ^Valls, Andrew (September 1998).American Political Science Review.92(3): 691–692.doi:10.2307/2585505.ISSN0003-0554.JSTOR2585505.S2CID147723627.{{cite journal}}:CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  29. ^Harris, Leonard (January 2000).Ethics.110(2): 432–434.doi:10.1086/233284.ISSN0014-1704.S2CID171340106.{{cite journal}}:CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  30. ^de Allen, Gertrude James Gonzalez (2005).Philosophia Africana.8(1): 83–86.ISSN1539-8250.JSTOR10.5325/philafri.8.1.0083.{{cite journal}}:CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  31. ^Shelby, Tommie(September 2004)."From Class to Race: Essays in White Marxism and Black Radicalism".Perspectives on Politics.2(3).doi:10.1017/S1537592704320372.ISSN1537-5927.S2CID141786277.Archivedfrom the original on September 22, 2021.RetrievedSeptember 21,2021.
  32. ^Bonner, Frank (January 2009).Gender and Education.21(1): 120–122.doi:10.1080/09540250802580877.ISSN0954-0253.S2CID145408041.{{cite journal}}:CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  33. ^Thame, Maziki (2011).Social and Economic Studies.60(3/4): 221–225.ISSN0037-7651.JSTOR41635326.{{cite journal}}:CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  34. ^Winant, Howard(February 19, 2018). "Charles Mills for and against liberalism".Ethnic and Racial Studies.41(3): 551–556.doi:10.1080/01419870.2018.1389969.ISSN0141-9870.S2CID149033335.

Further reading

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