Re-Examining the Problem of Slavery in Western Culture.

In this essay, Davis reflects on a career of scholarly work and publication that focused attention on the supreme paradox that Western culture has long combined extraordinary coercion and violence with a celebration of individual freedom. The central question addressed is what he calls a problem of moral perception: Why was it that at a certain moment of history, a small number of men and women not only saw the full horror of a social evil to which mankind had been blind for centuries, but felt impelled to attack it through personal testimony and cooperative action? This question required a very complex analysis of how profound intellectual and cultural change can occur.