A Dealer of Old Clothes: Philosophical Conversations with David Walker

Darryl Scriven presents, in this work, the first rigorous philosophical investigation of a myriad of issues found in David Walker's only book The Appeal. Scriven introduces Walker as a sage able to offer valuable philosophical insights into problems we as a nation are even now still confronting; thus marking Walker's work as timeless and rightfully so. Some of the issues investigated include the concepts of race, truth, esteem, human nature, racial consciousness, moral obligations, and the aim of social and political philosophy. By engaging Walker in a discussion about these issues and others, Scriven is able to present Walker as not just a sage who is quite prophetic, but as a true philosopher, political theorist, theologian and revolutionary pragmatist. No one who reads this work should doubt that Walker, although he has not been remembered as he should have been, at the time he published his pamphlet had a marked impact on the political and social landscape of this nation. Through this current dialogue between Scriven and Walker those who are careful to listen may well find a new hope, new insights, and perhaps even a new commitment to praxis at a time when our nation is still troubled and struggling to develop a sustainable, modern democracy. --From the Foreword by Daphne Rolle