ABSTRACT
A central theme in African American critical thought is the quest for social justice. As I indicated earlier, it is this quest that drives Cornel West’s sociopolitical/philosophical engagements as articulated though his doctrine of prophetic pragmatism. West claims to advocate for dispossessed, exploited, and demoralized individuals in society. The major ills West says he hopes to cure are despair, dread, disappointment, disease, and untimely death (1989, 6–8; see also Osborne 1996, 127). West’s contention is that these ills, suffered by people of color and lower-class Whites, result directly from human actions executed in and through the institutions of power and economic control in society. Specifically, the actions that produce these ills express rapacious individualism. And for West, it is these actions that give rise to social injustice. My proposed aim in this chapter, therefore, is to examine West’s prescription for overcoming the social injustice wrought by rapacious individualism. In particular, I propose to critique West’s suggestion that the liberation of African Americans from socioeconomic oppressive practices can only be effected through an admixture of prophetic Christian outlook and progressive Marxist social criticism.
