Women of Color and Philosophy

Philosophy is in its fourth millennium but this collection is the first of its kind. Twelve contemporary women of color who are American academic philosophers consider the methods and subjects of the discipline from perspectives partly informed by their experiences as African American, Asian American, Latina, Mixed Race and Native American.

The Contributors vii

Acknowledgements xiii

Introduction 1

Part 1 Critique 23

1 “Discredited Knowledge” in the Nonfiction of Toni Morrison 25
Joy James

2 Cultural Alterity: Cross-cultural Communications and Feminist Theory in North-South Contexts 44
Ofelia Schutte

3 Exploring the Sources of western Thought 69
V. F. Cordova

4 General Introduction to the Project: The Enterprise of Socratic Metaethics 91
Adrian M. S. Piper

Part 2 Activism and Application 133

5 Interview with Angela Y. Davis 135
George Yancy

6 That Alchemical Bering Strait Theory! Or Introducing America’s Indigenous Sovereign Nations Worldviews to Informal Logic Courses 152
Anne Schulherr Waters

7 The Libertarian Role Model and the Burden of Uplifting the Race 168
Barbara Hall

8 Interracial Marriage: Folk Ethics in Contemporary Philosophy 182
Anita L. Allen

Part 3 New Directions 207

9 Asian Women: Invisibility, Locations, and Claims to Philosophy 209
Yoko Arisaka

10 On Judging Epistemic Credibility: Is Social Identity Relevant? 235
Linda Martin Alcoff

11 Cognitive Science and the Quest for a Theory of Properties 263
Dasiea Cavers-Huff

12 Descartes’ Realist Awake-Asleep Distinction and Naturalism 280
Naomi Zack

Select Bibliography 303

Index 311

"In this unique collection, Naomi Zack invites the twelve members of this select group of women of color to reflect on what they and their colleagues do, as philosophers. Their original and sometimes ground-breaking contributions critique traditional academic philosophy, apply traditional philosophical methods to topics of social relevance hitherto ignored by philosophers, and interpret traditional philosophy in ways that suggest new areas of study." Alison M. Jaggar, University of Colorado at Boulder

"This is a splendid book. It will be important to research and teaching in feminist philosophy, philosophy of race, and other women's studies and race courses." Sandra Harding, University of California, Los Angeles

"The growing recognition of the important contributions of women philosophers of color, past and present, is a sign that there may still be hope for philosophers to transcend some of their prejudices. Blackwell has offered the profession a chance by publishing this pioneering volume that I am sure will stimulate research on the work of women philosophers included and those who I am sure will appear in subsequent volumes influenced by this important work. It will be a valuable addition to any library and certainly class discussions of contemporary engagements with ideas." Lewis R. Gordon, Brown University and the University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica

Naomi Zack teaches philosophy at the University at Albany, State University of New York. She is the author of Race and Mixed Race (1993), Bachelors of Science: Seventeenth Century Identity, Then and Now (1996), and Thinking About Race (1998). She is the editor of American Mixed Race: The Culture of Microdiversity (1995), RACE/SEX: Their Sameness, Difference and Interplay (1997), and co-editor of Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality: The Big Questions (Blackwell, 1998). Philosophy is in its fourth millennium but this collection is the first of its kind. Twelve contemporary women of color who are American academic philosophers consider the methods and subjects of the discipline from perspectives partly informed by their experiences as African American, Asian American, Latina, Mixed Race and Native American.

The essays represent the authors' views on a wide range of topics: community, epistemology and social identity, alterity, metaphysics, rationalist ethics, loyalty, intellectual history, and realism. The writing is without jargon and the methods of argument will be familiar to traditional philosophers. The ideas, interpretations and suggestions give voice to changes in the field that many readers will recognize as inevitable and overdue. Themes include critique of tradition, applications of philosophical method to social issues and proposals for change. Specific topics range from moral issues in interracial marriage, to indigenous rights, to the application of cognitive science to metaphysical theories of properties.

Despite its breadth, Women of Color and Philosophy examines assumptions and new directions, in depth and with lucid specificity. This collection can be read as a challenge to the field as well as a forum for its smallest minority, as reassurance and encouragement for the independent thinkers from the center to the periphery.