Poster Title
P-19 Natural Rights, Literary Accommodation and the Successful Social Justice Movement: Thomas Reid’s Natural Law Philosophy and Early English Abolitionists Olaudah Equiano and Ottobah Cugoano
Abstract
In this project I will examine how natural law philosophy lead early English abolitionists Olaudah Equiano and Ottobah Cugoano to prioritize a literary style that seeks common ground on a basis of universal human identity. Connections between Equiano and Cugoano’s thought and Thomas Reid, founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense and natural law scholar, who elucidated the importance of mutually recognized language and logical structure to a functioning framework of natural rights, have been neglected in the history of natural law philosophy. A renewed emphasis on natural law’s importance to early social justice movements could revitalize our perspective for the development of modern civil rights.
Start Date
2-28-2020 2:30 PM
P-19 Natural Rights, Literary Accommodation and the Successful Social Justice Movement: Thomas Reid’s Natural Law Philosophy and Early English Abolitionists Olaudah Equiano and Ottobah Cugoano
In this project I will examine how natural law philosophy lead early English abolitionists Olaudah Equiano and Ottobah Cugoano to prioritize a literary style that seeks common ground on a basis of universal human identity. Connections between Equiano and Cugoano’s thought and Thomas Reid, founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense and natural law scholar, who elucidated the importance of mutually recognized language and logical structure to a functioning framework of natural rights, have been neglected in the history of natural law philosophy. A renewed emphasis on natural law’s importance to early social justice movements could revitalize our perspective for the development of modern civil rights.
Acknowledgments
J.N. Andrews Honors Scholar
Mentors: Stephanie Carpenter & Gary Wood, History & Political Science