Fugitive Thought: Prison Movements, Race, And The Meaning Of Justice

by Michael Hames-Garcia

Overview

Looks to the philosophy and experience of prisoners to reinvigorate our concepts of justice, solidarity, and freedom

In Fugitive Thought, Michael Hames-García argues that writings by prisoners are instances of practical social theory that seek to transform the world. Unlike other authors who have studied prisons or legal theory, Hames-García views prisoners as political and social thinkers whose ideas are as valuable as those of lawyers and philosophers.

As key moral terms like “justice,” “solidarity,” and “freedom” have come under suspicion in the post-Civil Rights era, political discussions on the Left have reached an impasse. Fugitive Thought reexamines and reinvigorates these concepts through a fresh approach to philosophies of justice and freedom, combining the study of legal theory and of prison literature to show how the critiques and moral visions of dissidents and participants in prison movements can contribute to the shaping and realization of workable ethical conceptions. Fugitive Thought focuses on writings by black and Latina/o lawyers and prisoners to flesh out the philosophical underpinnings of ethical claims within legal theory and prison activism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780816643141
Publisher:	University of Minnesota Press
Publication date:	07/14/2004
Edition description:	First edition
Pages:	408
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Michael Hames-García is associate professor of English and of philosophy, interpretation, and culture at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	xi
	Introduction	xv
Part I.	Justice, Race, and Law
1.	Toward a Critical Theory of Justice	3
2.	In Contempt: Lawyering out of Bounds	49
Part II.	The Practice of Freedom and U.S. Prison Movements
3.	The Practice of Freedom: Assata's Struggle	95
4.	Resistant Freedom: Piri Thomas and Miguel Pinero	141
Part III.	Rebellion, Poetry, and Praxis
5.	Toward a Praxical Moral Theory: Prison Poets and Intellectuals	193
	Conclusion	249
	Notes	255
	Bibliography	289
	Index	327