In Search of Epistemic Freedom: Afro-Caribbean Philosophy’s Contributions to Continental Philosophy

Afro-Caribbean philosophy represents an interdisciplinary space, where a variety of approaches to thinking are practiced, examined, and critiqued. This philosophy challenges Western European epistemology and ontology. The result is a fresh ground for exchange of ideas that welcomes innovation and discards Western disciplinary philosophical thought as a fundamental requirement to pursuing questions and theoretical ideas about African descendants in the Americas. Afro-Caribbean philosophy begins at the margins of Western philosophy. Although marginal, this philosophy demonstrates how discourse from this location has been socially, politically, and intellectually productive. Finally, this philosophy actively seeks to “shift the geography of reason,” that is, decentralizing complex thought from Western Europe to what Enrique Dussel calls “the periphery.”

In the following essay, I will first use the lens of my graduate experience to show the limitations of Continental philosophy. Second, I will discuss how Afro-Caribbean philosophy engages in “shifting the geography of reason,” a central project of contemporary Afro-Caribbean thinkers. Third, I will show how questions that are central to Afro-Caribbean thought are being asked and answered. Some of these questions include the following:

1. 1. What is thinking? Can Afro-Caribbean people be rigorous in their thinking?

2. 2. Why are philosophical marginal subfields from the West, such as feminism, inadequate for revolutionary Caribbean thought?

3. 3. What does it mean to be human?

4. 4. What is the value of Caribbean experience (if any) to understanding being?

In answering these questions, Afro-Caribbean philosophy enriches Western philosophy, in general.

The Limits of Continental Philosophy: Graduate School in Philosophy in the Late Twentieth Century

A product of an interdisciplinary philosophy program based, in part, on the Continental tradition, my work has benefited from the unique contributions that Afro-Caribbean thought has made to philosophy. Afro-Caribbean philosophy has provided a unique intellectual environment that has enabled me to (1) cultivate questions and ideas that center on the lives of Caribbean people and (2) develop “legitimate” analytical frameworks that have broad implications not only for Caribbean people but for African descendants in diaspora. This philosophy also enables me to explore, in particular ways, social and political thought about the Americas. Finally, from this philosophy I am also able to tackle general questions that pertain to the pursuit of disciplinary philosophy. Because my intellectual growth within Afro-Caribbean philosophy has been deeply influenced by early foundational work begun and completed in graduate school, I think that it is useful to give an account of my intellectual journey in that phase of preparation.

In 1990 when I began graduate school at Binghamton University of the State University of New York there was no subfield called Afro-Caribbean philosophy. Nevertheless, there were pockets of black philosophers, social and political critics, and thinkers around the world who, often in conversation with each other, were dealing with philosophical issues related to black people. Although there were already well-established living Afro-U.S. philosophers, such as Howard McGary, Leonard Harris, Frank Kirkland, Lucius Outlaw, and Bill Lawson, the idea of an African American philosophy was still new. There was a persisting question, however: “Is there such a thing as African, African American, and Africana philosophy?” Although the aforementioned Afro-U.S. scholars responded, the question still lingered. And so, in spite of all the groundwork already laid in the arena of Africana thought, it was still necessary to carefully situate work dealing with African descendants with clear locations in already established Western European philosophical dialogues and/or disciplinary technique. Continued acceptance and mainstreaming of the African-descended U.S. wing of Africana philosophy, however, was due in large measure to these early foundational thinkers (some of whom I have already mentioned), as well as to younger philosophers such as Lewis Gordon (1995, 1997) and Charles Mills (1997, 2003), who carefully carved new spaces and explored important Caribbean issues and/or issues pertaining to blackness in the Americas that had been heretofore neglected by not only Western philosophers and but also African American philosophers.

Although the M.A. and Ph.D. programs at Binghamton were...