If Philosophy Won't Diversify, Let's Call It What It Really Is

Bilimoria, Purushottama, Rostalska, Agnieszka. “Diversity in Philosophy”, in, S. Flavel and Ch. Robbiano (eds.). Key Concepts in World Philosophies: A Toolkit for Philosophers. London, Bloomsbury, pp. 355–64., 2023

There are two ways of looking at the strategy for “diversity” in philosophy in a higher institutional setting. The first one entails changing the color and gender of the faculty by appointing scholars of color and ethnically divergent background, but—and here is the rub—expect, indeed demand, of them that they continue to be compliant with the status quo, and therefore in heavily analytic departments do just that and do not stray outside of the Anglophone perimeters or be lured into divergences. Female and non-binary appointees are neither expected nor encouraged to stray into current feminist and deconstructive fads perpetrated by what are seen as mostly French feminist philosophers with a few Australian and North American female philosophers. The second approach takes as its objective the diversification of the curriculum content so that there is increasingly a recognition of the diversity of the contemporary world we live in; this moves away from what in politics might be called “partisan lines.” Here, the philosophical academy recognizes that systems of thinking and reasoning, in short, philosophizing, not the one confined to the alleged roots of Greece and developed in Europe and the West. There might be a third position which combines both approaches and diversifies in terms of both colour, ethnicity, gender as well as the subject matter (drawn from across several globally representative traditions). This is how the journal Sophia has diversified (as will be examined later). Although this case only impacts on the diversification of philosophy journals – still a vital instrument for dissemination of knowledge and for shaping particular disciplines—an exemplary model has been carved out of which the world of philosophy might just wish to take note. And to consider as a possible response in the face of various threats from without that face philosophy departments in these trying times when questions of application as well as of global relevance are asked.

Inter-American Journal of Philosophy, 2018

This article defends the need for multicultural inclusion of curriculum artifacts in philosophy courses in an effort to increase the number of minority philosophers. In terms of diversity, philosophy has the worst representation in the academic world. The first step to close this gap is to ensure that philosophy educators include more than just western ideas in their textbooks and class materials. This article includes research data from the U.S.-Mexico border. Resumen en español Este artículo defiende la necesidad de incluir material multicultural en el currículum de clases de filosofía para así incrementar el número de estudiantes minoritarios. En cuanto a diversidad, el campo de la filosofía académica tiene la peor representación en el mundo. El primer paso para eliminar esta discrepancia es de asegurarnos que como educadores, incluyamos a voces distintas a las Europeas en nuestras clases y libros de texto. Este artículo incluye investigación y datos de la frontera México-Estados Unidos. Resumo em português Este artigo defende a necessidade de incluir material multicultural no currículo das aulas de filosofia, a fim de aumentar o número de estudantes de minorias. Em termos de diversidade, a disciplina da filosofia acadêmica tem a pior representação do mundo. O primeiro passo para eliminar essa discrepância é garantir que, como educadores, incluamos outras vozes além das europeias em nossas aulas e livros didáticos. Este artigo inclui pesquisas e dados da fronteira EUA-México.

In introducing the present issue, I clarify in which sense knowledge and philosophy can discriminate and marginalize some individuals. In the first part, I focus on the traditional exclusion of women from philosophy and explore some feminist projects of re-reading the philosophical canon. In my analysis, I pay particular attention to the gender gap in philosophy and the so-called " demographic problem " in academia. In the second part, I examine the best practices for remedying these forms of injustice and promoting diversity in philosophy.

Dao, 2015

At the confluence of the philosophy of education and social/political philosophy lies the question of how we should educate the next generation of philosophy professors. Part of the question involves how broad such an education should be in order to educate teachers with the ability to, themselves, educate citizens competent to function in a diverse, globalized world. As traditional Western education systems from elementary schools through universities have embraced multicultural sources over the last few decades, philosophy Ph.D. programs have bucked this trend, clinging tightly to traditional Western sources and problems. While this claim will come as no surprise to those working in the field, there is little published evidence or discussion of the tacit rejection of multiculturalism by philosophy Ph.D. programs, and few people outside the field realize how Eurocentric these programs remain. This article provides evidence and discussion of this fact, focusing on the case of Chinese philosophy in American Ph.D. programs.

Philosophy East and West, 2017

2018

Bryan Van Norden's Taking Back Philosophy 1 is a polemic, literally an extended op-ed, arguing that American philosophy departments should allocate more resources and especially teaching positions to "less commonly taught philosophies," especially those from outside the Anglo-European world. Let me say three things at the beginning: First, I have no objection to Van Norden's goal. Second, I do not have enough familiarity with American philosophy departments to make informed objections. Since getting my Ph.D. in political science I have taught for precisely one year in the United States, in political science and Directed Studies at Yale. I spent a sabbatical year in Princeton's alternative philosophy department, the University Center for Human Values, at the wrong end of Rockefeller Hall. While I studied philosophy and with professors of philosophy, in college, graduate school, and after, and I have published in philosophy journals, I am not within the discipline of philosophy. I have worked with and taught, and even published a little bit, on some of Norden's "less commonly taught philosophies." 2 Nonetheless, I am cut off from full engagement with Chinese philosophy by knowing no Chinese, and with Arabic philosophy by knowing no Arabic. Though I agree that philosophic texts of all cultures should be included in the philosophy curriculum, I certainly do not share Van Norden's vision that "in an ideal world, philosophy departments should make their own decisions about their curricula internally" (31). I think this would only be reasonable if the ideal philosophy department were entirely and completely selfsupporting and had no interest in preparing its late adolescent undergraduate students for professional study or nonacademic employment. Unlike Van Norden, I think that in these curricular matters the opinions of the outsiders who pay the professors' salaries and hire their students should count for something, and my opinion no less than that of the average welder, politician, or professor of surgery. I do not know enough about American philosophy departments, or any philosophy departments anywhere, to know if they offer or require the right amount of any "less commonly taught philosophy." So neither my agreement nor my disagreement on this point is worth more or less than that of any other colleague or taxpayer.

Summary ‘Each epoch of philosophy has its own necessity.’ It is this sentence from Heidegger’s lecture ‘The end of philosophy and the task of thinking’ that sets the tone and highlights the responsibility of philosophers, as it did in 1964 when Heidegger noticed a crisis in philosophy. Living in a global and an intrinsically connected world, in which information and communication including issues of misinformation and miscommunication are more pressing than ever before, I would like to reflect on a different crisis within philosophy: the neglect, exclusion and ignorance of non-Western philosophy, not only within the philosophical discipline but more specifically within academia. How the operative Western oriented philosophical canon is ‘wronging’ the knowledge of philosophers and through them the next generations of philosophers by refraining from all other philosophical thoughts and concepts outside the Western realm. By offering and teaching just half of the philosophical pie (Western philosophy) within academia and tacitly suggesting and pretending that it’s the whole pie, it can be seen as a lie. This brings me to my first and main question: ‘Is the neglect of non-Western philosophy within Western academia an epistemic injustice to non-Western philosophers?’ A second question will be: ‘Is the neglect of non-Western philosophy an epistemic injustice to non-Western philosophy students?’ The third one will be: ‘Is the neglect of non-Western philosophy an epistemic injustice even to Western philosophy students?’ And the last one is: ‘Can we held someone accountable for this injustice?’ To find answers to these questions I will mainly discuss Miranda Frickers ground-breaking concept and theory of Epistemic Injustice , with additions by Elisabeth Anderson, José Medina, and the related concept of Willful Hermeneutical Ignorance from Gaile Pohlhaus Jr. I will conclude that we can speak of epistemic injustice to non-Western philosophers, that we can speak of epistemic injustice to non-Western philosophy students, that we can speak of epistemic injustice to Western philosophy students too, and that in the first place the deans and the team of professors who define the curricula can be held accountable for this injustice. In addition all instructors and/or philosophers can be partially be held responsible individually as well because no one can hide behind the shortcomings of their academic culture. I will close with a plea to add non-Western philosophy as an integral part to the curricula of Western academia, and I support the plea of Ganeri to start an Institute for Cosmopolitan Philosophy in a Culturally Polycentric World and suggest that Eurocentrism can be seen as the ‘ethical poison’ of the philosophical discipline within the current epoch.

2019

The importance and relevance of philosophy has come to be recognized more today than ever before in recent history. In many colleges and universities philosophy is now an essential component of interdisciplinary studies. The public interest in philosophy is increasing. UNESCO’s initiatives to promote philosophy are laudable. All these call for reimagining the study and teaching of philosophy for our contemporary time − a task worthwhile for philosophy studies in ecclesiastical institutes as well.

Educational Philosophy and Theory, 2019

Using the example of cross-cultural philosophy's relation to disciplinary philosophy, this article seeks to think through some of the issues relevant to diversifying philosophy as an academic discipline. Guided by James Tully's ruminations on non-domination, it attempts to make a case for a practice of philosophy which is more attuned to its social situatedness in a postindustrial, liberal society. Within this context, it argues that disciplinary philosophy must seek to contribute to making meaning of our place in the world.

Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, 2008