The Use and Abuse of Philosophy in History: James Warley Miles and the Dangers of Racist Dehistoricization
Student: Patrick Wohlscheid
Major: Philosophy
Mentors: Dr. Jonathan Neufeld
Department: Philosophy
The Use and Abuse of Philosophy in History: James Warley Miles and the Dangers of Racist Dehistoricization
As a Philosophy professor at the College of Charleston and public theologian in the mid-19th century, James Warley Miles spoke to students at the College at least three times, in each addressing his philosophical conceptions of history, politics, and the role of "great men" in history. Similarly, and not unexpectedly, Miles also wrote several pieces on the positive role of slavery in American society, and was chosen to eulogize the notoriously pro-slavery statesman John C. Calhoun. The example of such a figure leads to many interesting questions, but more generally asks us to consider the following: how should we think about minor historical figures like Miles, whose philosophy is unoriginal and filled with repugnant political and social views, but whose work as a whole exemplifies an interesting moment in America's changing culture? Scholarship on Miles, his influences, and earlier contemporaries reveals the tendency to avoid engaging with racial attitudes altogether, typically by attempting to dehistoricize the ideas from the individual and history under the reasoning that if the philosophy is abstract enough, there would be no reason to discuss things like race and slavery, However, by looking at primary historical and philosophical text from Miles and more prominent philosophers of the 19th century, this project argues for a "rehistoricization," or that race can only be abstracted away at the expense of the real philosophical content, and should instead be viewed as central and necessary to any thinking on the history of 19th century philosophy and intellectual culture.