African American Philosophers and Philosophy : An Introduction to the History, Concepts and Contemporary Issues

This book presents the first introduction to African American academic philosophers, exploring their concepts and ideas and revealing the critical part they have played in the formation of philosophy in the USA.

The book begins with the early years of educational attainment by African American philosophers in the 1860s. To demonstrate the impact of their philosophical work on general problems in the discipline, chapters are broken down into four major areas of study: Axiology, Social Science, Philosophy of Religion and Philosophy of Science. Providing personal narratives on individual philosophers and examining the work of figures such as H. T. Johnson, William D. Johnson, Joyce Mitchell Cooke, Adrian Piper, William R. Jones, Roy D. Morrison, Eugene C. Holmes, and William A. Banner, the book challenges the myth that philosophy is exclusively a white academic discipline. Packed with examples of struggles and triumphs, this engaging introduction is a much-needed approach to studying philosophy today.

“The chapter on philosophy of religion is by far the most interesting, because publishing American African philosophers' debates about science and metaphysics is rare … An important volume … Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.” —CHOICE

“This groundbreaking work introduces us to the ideas of African American (AA) who were academically trained in classical and modern philosophy. It shows the extent that philosophical reflection has been present among AA scholars, though their work has been ignored by the philosophical establishment. The chapters explore AA contributions to philosophical questions regarding: the origins of philosophy; ethics; aesthetics and the philosophy of music; philosophy of science; and the philosophy of religion. The glossary is invaluable resource. It provides a list of 103 AA's with doctorates in philosophy and related fields granted since emancipation, the institution they graduated from, and their dissertation title. This work provides a needed historical framework for AA academic philosophy.” —Albert Mosley, Professor of Philosophy, Smith College, USA

“I have been searching for a work that speaks to the vast history of the Black philosophical experience in the United States, from the perspective of a materialist approach. In clear and detailed language, the authors examine philosophy, once committed to an bourgeois ideology, by recovering the legacy of Black Philosophical thought.” —Brittany L. O'Neal, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Africana Studies, Lehman College, City University of New York, USA

“Ferguson and McClendon's indispensable African American Philosophers and Philosophy recovers a rich legacy of Black philosophical thought, demonstrating its deserved place at the center of the history and practice of academic philosophy. Too often, Black philosophy has been regarded as peripheral and inessential. Ferguson and McClendon show that philosophy's pretensions to universalism can be realized only by attending to the particular philosophical concerns of all its practitioners.” —Vanessa Wills, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, The George Washington University, USA