Undergraduate Course: Venturing into Black Philosophy: From the American Negro Academy to the Edinburgh School (PHIL10245)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This will be a survey course on the major schools of Black thought, ranging from its inception in the history of American philosophy to the most recent development of it in Edinburgh. This course will introduce major schools of thought as "American Negro Academy," "Negro Society for Historical Research," US-American Black Studies," "Negritude," "Fanon Studies," "Critical Race Theory," and "Black Male Studies." The list of thinkers includes (but is not limited to) Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, Alexander Crummell, William Henry Ferris, John Edward Bruce, Arthur Alfonso Schomburg, Angela Davis, bell hooks, Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Steve Biko, Franz Fanon, Sylvia Wynter, Kimberle Crenshaw, Tommy J. Curry, Norman Ajari, and Miron Clay-Gilmore. Students will learn what these distinct groups of thinkers offer and how their major concepts have shaped the history of Africana philosophy, thus building their knowledge on the materials they learned from my introductory lecture on Africana philosophy in the Introduction to the History of Philosophy B (for Year 1 & 2 students) and preparing them for the advanced topics on radical Black thought (taught by Tommy Curry) in the Year 4 and MSc courses. Once again, Edinburgh played a significant role in the historical development of Black thought: hence, by taking this course, students will come to know their intellectual heritage in Edinburgh as an integral part of the history of radical Black philosophy. |
| Course description |
The primary goals of this course are (i) to acquire the knowledge of the basic tenets of Black philosophy as they are manifest in the history of Africana philosophy and (ii) to reflect upon how this tradition emerged in reference to the lived experienced of African-descended people in diverse cultural and historical contexts of Americas, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe. By surveying the major schools of Black thought students will cultivate their ability to understand how Black thinkers have identified the colonial legacy of Western(-style) philosophy and how they managed to forge their own creative and liberatory paths beyond it. Each seminar starts with a group presentation, which will require students to give a short historical introduction to the assigned school of thought and to share their preliminary reflections on its central leitmotifs. The rest of the seminar we will go over both assigned readings and relevant materials in light of the key points raised by the presentation and further engaged in our critical discussions. Based on the textual critique, we will also talk about the method of analysing relevant empirical data that is available in public domain and learn how we can integrate the critical thinking of Black philosophy in our social, political, and existential condition in the twentieth-first century. By looking into a range of materials (including various policies, scholarly curricula, and news items among others), students will cultivate their ability to identify relevant theories in face of reality and to effectively apply them to unpack the philosophical significance of a chosen public record. Thus this course will guide students not only to acquire the genealogical understanding of Black thought but also to remain faithful to the spirit of Africana philosophy that is to use the concepts to realise our decolonial future.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2025/26, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 33,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
163 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Class Presentation 20% - 500 words, 5 minutes per person
Group Research Project 30% - 800 words per person
Final Essay 50% - 2500 words |
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- To acquire the knowledge of the basic tenets of Black philosophy as they are manifest in the history of Africana philosophy.
- To reflect upon how this tradition emerged in reference to the lived experienced of African-descended people in diverse cultural and historical contexts of Americas, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe.
- To understand how Black thinkers have identified the colonial legacy of Western(-style) philosophy and how they managed to forge their own creative and liberatory paths beyond it.
- To demonstrate their ability to identify relevant theories in face of reality and to effectively apply them to unpack a chosen public record.
- To break down complex issues set forth by the course materials and to articulate their own positions vis-à-vis Black philosophy.
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Reading List
Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery. W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk and Black Reconstruction in America.
Alexander Crummell, Selected Essays. William Henry Ferris, The Philosophical Treatise of William H. Ferris: Selected Readings from The African Abroad or, His Evolution in Western Civilization
John Edward Bruce, Bruce Grit: The Black Nationalist Writings Of Arthur Alfonso Schomburg, Selected Papers.
Angela Davis, Woman, Race & Class.
bell hooks, Ain't I a Woman?: Black Women and Feminism
Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, Return to My Native Land
Léopold Sédar Senghor, Selected Poetry of Leopold Senghor.
Steve Biko, I Write What I Like, Cry Freedom.
Franz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, and The Wretched of the Earth.
Sylvia Wynter, Selected Papers.
Kimberle Crenshaw, Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement
Tommy J. Curry, Man-Not.
Norman Ajari, Diginity or Death, Darkening Blackness, and Afro-Decolonial Manifesto.
Miron Clay-Gilmore, Selected Papers. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Students will achieve employability through group presentation and research output. With the former, they become an effective communicator of ideas and with the latter, they will learn to conduct a qualitative research that is indispensable for creating or promoting any goods and services.
Students in this class will foster the following attributes:
- curiosity for learning ongoing inequality and structural racism in any given society, which helps them make a positive difference in the future.
- courage to expand and fulfil their potential (especially for living in their more diverse and inclusive future) by learning how to read empirical data through a critical framework of thinking and to use it to express their philosophical views.
- their passion to engage in both local and global problems by examining the global influence of racism on our local experience (e.g., our academic curriculum) and by discussing how we can change it based on the historical discussions in Africana philosophy.
They will also learn:
- to become creative problem solvers and researchers in the following two senses. First, the materials they read in this class would be generally considered to be outside the canon of philosophy. As such, they will have to think outside the box and to learn to be creative in their self-critical reading of these materials.
Second, they will also be asked to apply the theoretical apparatus that they will acquire from the course materials to empirical facts that they will gather in the public domain. This will force them to become creative researchers that see a solution of our communal and structural problems.
- to become critical and reflective thinkers: this course will question the importance of decolonial thinking and of achieving intellectual EDI in the context of Africana philosophy. This process has to be done in various contexts that are far from achieving these ideals. In this sense, the very process of learning Africana philosophy in UK academia will require students to become both self-reflective thinkers in and beyond this course.
- to acquire the most effective way of understanding world philosophies and to become influential communicator of decolonial thinking.
Most discussions on the EDI and decolonising curriculum are spoken from the dominant perspective of colonial thinking in UK academia. To break away from this negative trend, students will be asked to read non-western philosophical texts in reference to their own intellectual context. This is the most effective way of understanding world philosophies and help students become influential communicator of decolonial thinking.
- to become skilled communicators through research output and group presentation in this course.
Enquiry and lifelong learning: The problem of decolonial thinking is not limited to students' experience on campus but will extend to their life as the people from diverse backgrounds. I have no doubt that this course will provide them a basis in which they can check whether or no they are being critical of colonial tendency in any society they live in. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Takeshi Morisato
Tel: (0131 6)51 7112
Email: tmorisat@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Joan MacKenzie
Tel:
Email: jmacken8@ed.ac.uk |
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