Abstract
Central to W.E.B. Du Bois’s political theory is a conception of “world” remarkably similar to that put forward, years later, by Martin Heidegger. This point is more methodological than historical: I claim that approaching Du Bois’s work as a source, rather than as a product, of concepts that resonated with subsequent thinkers allows us to better appreciate the novelty and vision of his political theory. Exploring this resonance, I argue, helps to refine the notions of world and founding present in each theorist’s work. Yet, it is only by remaining attentive to their differences that we can understand how Du Bois and Heidegger could endorse such dramatically opposed political programs despite similar theoretical starting points.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Appiah, K.A. (2014) Lines of Descent: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Emergence of Identity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Balfour, L. (1998) ‘A most disagreeable mirror’: Race consciousness as double consciousness. Political Theory 26(3): 346–369.
Balfour, L. (2011) Democracy’s Reconstruction: Thinking Politically with W.E.B. Du Bois. New York: Oxford University Press.
Brotz, H. (1966) Negro Social and Political Thought: Representative Texts. New York: Basic Books.
Bruce, D.D. (1992) W. E. B. Du Bois and the idea of double consciousness. American Literature 64(2): 299–309.
Du Bois, W. (1986a [1903]) Souls of black folk. In: N. Huggins (ed.) Du Bois’s Writings. New York: The Library of America.
Du Bois, W. (1986b [1940]) Dusk of dawn. In: N. Huggins (ed.) W.E.B. Du Bois’s Writings. New York: The Library of America.
Du Bois, W. (1986c [1903]) The talented tenth. In: N. Huggins (ed.) W.E.B. Du Bois’s Writings. New York: The Library of America.
Du Bois, W. (1986d [1897]) The conservation of races. In: N. Huggins (ed.) W.E.B. Du Bois’s Writings. New York: The Library of America.
Du Bois, W. (1997 [1904]) The development of a people. In: D. Blight and R. Gooding-Williams (eds.) The Souls of Black Folk. Boston, MA: Bedford Books.
Du Bois, W. (1999 [1920]) Darkwater: Voices from within the Veil. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications.
Gillespie, M.A. (2000) Martin Heidegger’s Aristotelian National Socialism. Political Theory 28(2): 140–166.
Gooding-Williams, R. (2005) Du Bois, politics, aesthetics: An introduction. Public Culture 17(2): 203–215.
Gooding-Williams, R. (2009) The Shadow of Du Bois: Afro-Modern Political Thought in America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Gordon, P.E. (2014) Heidegger in Black. The New York Review of Books, 9 October.
Heidegger, M. (1971) Poetry Language, Thought. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Thought.
Heidegger, M. (1977) The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays. New York: Garland Publishing Inc.
Heidegger, M. (1990) The self-assertion of the German University. In: G. Neske and E. Kettering (eds.) Martin Heidegger and National Socialism: Questions and Answers. New York: Paragon House.
Heidegger, M. (2000) Introduction to Metaphysics. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Heidegger, M. (2008) Being and Time. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics.
Lewis, D.L. (1993) W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868-1919. New York: Holt.
Mariotti, S. (2009) On the passing of the first-born son: Emerson’s ‘focal distancing’, Du Bois’ ‘second sight’, and disruptive particularity. Political Theory 37(3): 351–374.
Noel, J.A. (2009) Black Religion and the Imagination of Matter in the Atlantic World. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Reed, A. (1985) A perspective on the bases of his political thought. Political Theory 13(3): 431–456.
Reed, A. (1997) W.E.B. Du Bois and American Political Thought. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rogers, M. (2012) The people, rhetoric, and affect: On the political force of Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk. American Political Science Review 106(1): 188–203.
Russon, J. (1995) Heidegger, hegel, and ethnicity: The ritual basis of self-identity. The Southern Journal of Philosophy 33(4): 509–532.
Salem-Wiseman, J. (2003) Heidegger’s Dasein and the Liberal conception of the self. Political Theory 31(4): 533–557.
Singh, N.P. (1998) Culture/wars: Recoding empire in an age of democracy. American Quarterly 50(3): 471–522.
Sollors, W. (1990) Of mule and mares in a land of difference; or quadrupeds all? American Quarterly 42(2): 167–190.
Spiegelberg, H. (1981) What William James knew about Edmund Husserl: On the credibility of Pitkin’s testimony. In: H. Spiegelberg (ed.) The Context of the Phenomenological Movement. Boston, MA: Martinus Nijhoff, pp. 105–118.
Strupp, C. (2013) ‘Only a Phase’: How Diplomats Misjudged Hitler’s Rise. Der Spiegel, 30 January.
Taylor, C. (1985) Human Agency and Language. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Taylor, C. (1989) Sources of Self: The Making of Modern Identity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Thiele, L.P. (1995) Timely Meditations: Martin Heidegger and Postmodern Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
White, S.K. (2004) Sustaining Affirmation: The Strengths of Weak Ontology in Political Theory. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Zamir, S. (1995) Dark Voices: W. E. B. Du Bois and American Thought, 1888-1903. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mittiga, R. What’s in a world? Du Bois and Heidegger on politics, aesthetics, and foundings. Contemp Polit Theory 18, 180–201 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41296-018-0281-9
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41296-018-0281-9