Western Civilization in Cedric Robinson's Black Marxism with Zeyad el Nabolsy

Patreon.com/everythingisideologyBuymeacoffee.com/everythingisideologyShow Notes: In this episode of  I sit down with philosopher Zeyad el Nabolsy to discuss his article, "The Concept of Western Civilization in Black Marxism: Cedric Robinson as an Ethnophilosopher." Together, we explore one of the most influential and debated texts in Black Studies and political theory: Cedric Robinson's Black Marxism.Our conversation examines Robinson's conception of Western civilization as a transhistorical formation structured by racism, his account of the Black Radical Tradition, and his critique of Marxism. We discuss whether racism can be understood as a continuous essence running from classical antiquity to the modern world, the relationship between capitalism and racial domination, and the historical development of concepts such as equality, human rights, slavery, and dehumanization.Along the way, we explore the Valladolid debate, Aristotle's theory of natural slavery, the Haitian Revolution, liberalism and its emancipatory possibilities, the influence of Western intellectual traditions on anti-colonial thinkers such as C.L.R. James and Amílcar Cabral, and the methodological debates surrounding ethnophilosophy and African philosophy. We also consider Robinson's treatment of Islam, Orientalism, and the broader question of how intellectual traditions travel, transform, and become tools for liberation in new historical contexts.Biopgraphy: Zeyad el Nabolsy has a Ph.D. in Africana Studies at Cornell University. He has an M.A. in philosophy and a B. Eng. (in chemical engineering) from McMaster University. Zeyad is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at York University. His main area of focus is modern African Intellectual History. His dissertation "Science, Modernity, and Progress in Nineteenth Century West and North Africa: A Comparative Study of Africanus Horton and Rifa’a al-Tahtawi" seeks to answer the question: how does our understanding of the role of modern science in African societies change when we cease to ignore the early reception of some of the modern sciences by nineteenth century African intellectuals such as Africanus Horton (1835–1883) in West Africa and Rifa'a al-Tahtawi (1801 - 1873) in North Africa, prior to the Scramble for Africa?Links: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/08935696.2025.2516348