African-American Contributions to

Philosophy

African American Philosophy during the twentieth century can be understood by examining milestone texts, from W. E. B. Du Bois' Souls of Black Folk (1903) to Lewis Gordon's Bad Faith and Anti-Black Racism (1995). These books reflect philosophically on the concept or category of race, on freedom and justice, and on the problem of evil. Since they are all grounded in the concrete, problematic situation of African Americans in 20th century America, they also raise with special urgency the issue of the relation of theory and practice, abstract reflection and social reform.

African-American leaders for centuries have had different ideals and perspectives of the African-American experience as well as varying cures for the social and political ailments that plague the race. In once sense it can be said that there are many common, everyday African-American philosophers like you and me who will never be recognized. There are other African-American philosophers in history who will never be mentioned and if so, only to have very little said about them. Besides the well-known Du Bois and Gordon, there are some lesser known but equally important African-American philosophers. One in particular, Thomas Nelson Baker is reportedly the first African-American to receive the Ph.D. in the field of Philosophy. Although Baker's writings have been considerably neglected, his philosophical views on issues of Black aesthetics, Black cultural identity, axiology, ethics, metaphysics, and philosophy of religion, with a broadly underlying philosophy of Black self-authenticating and self-emancipating praxis, constitute an early and significant philosophical precursor to a movement which later became known as the Harlem Renaissance (roughly, 1917 to 1935). Indeed, Baker is a very early precursor (though unacknowledged) to the Black Arts Movement with its stress upon a radical Black cultural semiotic reordering of the western cultural aesthetic. As early as 1906, Baker had already begun to lay the aesthetical, ethical, and psychological groundwork for the possible conditions in terms of which the "New Negro" might emerge. Therefore, linked to a general cultural and historical growth of Black consciousness and identity, Baker can be viewed as helping to foster a sense of thematic continuity concerning issues involving the oneness of Black people. Baker believed that all self-respecting Black people were agreed that the wrongs committed against them must be fought to a finish. Indeed, Baker was quite aware that race oppression in America was founded upon and sustained by what he termed "drunken humanity" and "moral insanity." However, he held that the issue of black identity of "whom" and "what" we are constitutes deep psychological and conceptual issues anterior to "where" we are. He argues not where we are, but what we are is the great and final question that should concern us.

American philosopher Alain Locke (1885-1954) contributed important writings on cultural pluralism, value relativism, and critical relativism. As a black philosopher early in this century, Locke was a pioneer: having earned both undergraduate and doctoral degrees at Harvard, he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, studied at the University of Berlin, and chaired the Philosophy Department at Howard University for almost four decades. He was perhaps best known as a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Locke's works in philosophy conceptually frame the Harlem Renaissance and New Negro movement and provide an Afro-American critique of pragmatism and value absolutism, and also offer a view of identity and communicative competency among other things. In addition, his major works on the nature of race, race relations, and the role of race-conscious literature are presented to demonstrate the application of his philosophy.

Another early lesser known African-American philosopher is Frantz Fanon. He grew up in Martinique amid descendants of African slaves brought to the Caribbean to work on the island's sugar plantations. From a 'European intellectual' Fanon gradually transformed to polemic scholar and socialist to revolutionary. Seared as a youth by racism, and influenced by Sartre's existentialism, Fanon analyzed the impact of colonialism and its deforming effects. His first major work Black Skin, White Masks (1952), had a major influence on civil rights, anti-colonial, and black consciousness movements around the world. Fanon argued that white colonialism imposed an existentially false and degrading existence upon its black victims to the extent that it demanded their conformity to its distorted values. He demonstrates how the problem of race, of color, connects with a whole range of words and images, starting from the symbol of the dark side of the soul. Fanon examines race prejudices as a philosopher and psychologist although he acknowledges social and economic realities.

The field of African-American philosophy cannot just be limited to above-mentioned philosophers, just as it cannot be limited to only those of African decent. The topics and thoughts themselves are not just limited to those of African-Americans, for as with everything the African-American experience is very much an American experience that includes the history and realities of America as a whole.