Philosophy of Philosophy: Race, Nation, and Religion, by Leonard Harris
In “Philosophy of Philosophy,” Leonard Harris examines the status of philosophy departments and doctoral programs. Harris argues that the institution is racist, in part by describing the lack of prominent nonwhite anglophone philosophers, professors, and doctoral candidates. Harris maintains that this is due in part to the “cephalic” nature of the philosophical tradition, that only certain works and authors count as authoritative and worthy of study—all being white dominated. This discourages and bars works and the study of non-white or non-English-written or -translated philosophy. Racism, Harris argues, in endemic to philosophy departments in the United States.
Article available through Philosophy Documentation Center, here.
Leonard Harris is Professor of Philosophy at Purdue University. In the past he has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University and Cambridge University and has held the position of University Distinguished Visiting Professor at William Paterson University. His research focuses on issues in social and political philosophy and the American philosophical tradition. He has co-authored (with C. Molesworth) a work on Alain Locke titled Alain L. Locke: A Philosophical Biography (University of Chicago Press, 2008) and edited many books including Racism (Humanity, 1999), The Critical Pragmatism of Alain Locke (Rowman & Littlefield, 1998), and Philosophy Born of Struggle (Kendall Hunt, 1984).
Leonard Harris, “Philosophy of Philosophy: Race, Nation, and Religion,” in “Philosophy and Race,” ed. Alexis Dianda and Robin M. Muller, special issue, Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal 35:1–2 (2014), pp. 369–80.