한
All people

PHILOSOPHY PROFILE

W. E. B. Du Bois

1903

START WITH THE PUZZLE

Is seeing oneself through both one’s own and a dominant society’s eyes only a wound of division, or also an epistemic resource?

Evidence-backed moments
2
Timeline events
1
Verified places
0

This is a guided intellectual story assembled from verified claims, works, and events in which this thinker actually appears. It avoids filling gaps with a generic encyclopedia biography.

Why this thinker is worth following

Story 1Whose knowledge is allowed to count?

Du Bois — Double consciousness and seeing oneself through others’ eyes

The question that opens it

Is seeing oneself through both one’s own and a dominant society’s eyes only a wound of division, or also an epistemic resource?

Follow the argument, not just the name
  1. 1

    Du Bois names double consciousness as the conflict of experiencing oneself through one’s own standpoint and the appraising gaze of a racist society.

    Check the evidence

    This is an evidence-linked editorial account, not a direct quotation.

    • Double Consciousness

      Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

      Locator: §1 The Trajectory of the Concept; The Souls of Black Folk passage

      Open source
  2. 2

    Whether “second sight” automatically grants privileged insight into dominant society or primarily diagnoses self-alienation remains disputed in the text and its reception.

    Check the evidence

    This is an evidence-linked editorial account, not a direct quotation.

    • Double Consciousness

      Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

      Locator: §2 Double-Consciousness in The Souls of Black Folk; §4 Contemporary interpretations

      Open source
Try the full inquiry

Decisive moments in time

  1. 1903

    The Souls of Black Folk records the inner division of racialized life as a social and epistemic problem.

    PerspectiveOpen in question

Continue through questions and works