African American Philosophy II, Patrick D. Anderson

"Divided into four units, the course first explores the philosophies of Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, and William H. Ferris within the context of turn-of-the-century Black intellectualism. Here, students are introduced to Washington's call for vocational education, Du Bois' social scientific innovations, and Ferris' idealist nationalism as responses to Anglo-Saxonism, Social Darwinism, ethnological racism, and Jim Crow segregation. These explorations suggest deeper metaphysical and epistemological questions about philosophy of history and the place of Black Americans in the present and future of that history."

"The second unit moves to the interwar period to survey they ways that Black thinkers responded to the ongoing debates about democracy in the United States. This unit begins with Alain Locke's pragmatic value theory and advocacy of pluralism while considering critical responses from reformers and Black radicals like Nannie Helen Burroughs and John Edward Bruce. This unit also covers several literary-existential reflections on the contradiction between democracy and segregation by Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston, and James Baldwin."

"The aim of these discussions is to contextualize Black thought as responses to the rise of white supremacy and the limits of the New Deal, continuing the philosophy of history themes of the first unit. This unit end with an examination of Du Bois' later writings, which reflect his anticolonial Pan-Africanism and his rejection of integration and American Empire. The third unit moves to the post-World War II (actually, post- Brown v. Board"

PHI 4220 surveys major historical periods and schools of twentieth-century African American philosophy from 1900 to 1975. The course examines philosophical methodology, educational philosophy, social reform, civil rights, Black Power, anticolonialism, and incarceration. Unit one treats Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, and William H. Ferris, focusing on vocational education, social scientific innovation, and idealist nationalism as responses to Anglo-Saxonism, Social Darwinism, ethnological racism, and Jim Crow. Unit two addresses the interwar period, Alain Locke’s pragmatism and pluralism, critiques by reformers and radicals, literary-existential reflections by Wright, Hurston, and Baldwin, and Du Bois’ later anticolonial Pan-Africanism. Unit three advances into post–World War II and Brown v. Board developments.

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