Women of Color and Philosophy

Naomi Zack teaches philosophy at the University at Albany, State University of New York. She is the author of Race and Mixed Race (1993), Bachelors of Science: Seventeenth Century Identity, Then and Now (1996), and Thinking About Race (1998). She is the editor of American Mixed Race: The Culture of Microdiversity (1995), RACE/SEX: Their Sameness, Difference and Interplay (1997), and co-editor of Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality: The Big Questions (Blackwell, 1998).

"In this unique collection, Naomi Zack invites the twelve members of this select group of women of color to reflect on what they and their colleagues do, as philosophers. Their original and sometimes ground-breaking contributions critique traditional academic philosophy, apply traditional philosophical methods to topics of social relevance hitherto ignored by philosophers, and interpret traditional philosophy in ways that suggest new areas of study." Alison M. Jaggar, University of Colorado at Boulder "This is a splendid book. It will be important to research and teaching in feminist philosophy, philosophy of race, and other women's studies and race courses." Sandra Harding, University of California, Los Angeles"The growing recognition of the important contributions of women philosophers of color, past and present, is a sign that there may still be hope for philosophers to transcend some of their prejudices. Blackwell has offered the profession a chance by publishing this pioneering volume that I am sure will stimulate research on the work of women philosophers included and those who I am sure will appear in subsequent volumes influenced by this important work. It will be a valuable addition to any library and certainly class discussions of contemporary engagements with ideas." Lewis R. Gordon, Brown University and the University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica

• The Contributors viiAcknowledgements xiiiIntroduction 1Part 1 Critique 231 “Discredited Knowledge” in the Nonfiction of Toni Morrison 25Joy James2 Cultural Alterity: Cross-cultural Communications and Feminist Theory in North-South Contexts 44Ofelia Schutte3 Exploring the Sources of western Thought 69V. F. Cordova4 General Introduction to the Project: The Enterprise of Socratic Metaethics 91Adrian M. S. PiperPart 2 Activism and Application 1335 Interview with Angela Y. Davis 135George Yancy6 That Alchemical Bering Strait Theory! Or Introducing America’s Indigenous Sovereign Nations Worldviews to Informal Logic Courses 152Anne Schulherr Waters7 The Libertarian Role Model and the Burden of Uplifting the Race 168Barbara Hall8 Interracial Marriage: Folk Ethics in Contemporary Philosophy 182Anita L. AllenPart 3 New Directions 2079 Asian Women: Invisibility, Locations, and Claims to Philosophy 209Yoko Arisaka10 On Judging Epistemic Credibility: Is Social Identity Relevant? 235Linda Martin Alcoff11 Cognitive Science and the Quest for a Theory of Properties 263Dasiea Cavers-Huff12 Descartes’ Realist Awake-Asleep Distinction and Naturalism 280Naomi ZackSelect Bibliography 303Index 311