The Radical Enlightenment of Charles W. Mills

Abstract

The relation between Charles Mills and the Enlightenment has often been overlooked or seen as antithetical. Yet Mills considered his philosophy a part of the (black) radical Enlightenment. The latter, he claimed, is true to the core principles of Enlightenment philosophy – objectivism, universalism, and rationalism – but radicalizes them with a focus on actual (racial) socio-political domination. In this paper, I argue that the principles of Enlightenment philosophy play a fundamental role in Mills’s project of locating real-world racial domination and the struggle against it at the center of philosophical reflection. I also show that, according to Mills, only the radical Enlightenment is able to substantively realize these principles. More generally, my discussion sheds light on Mills’s understanding of Enlightenment philosophy and the radical Enlightenment in particular.