Decolonizing American Philosophy

Wide-ranging examination of American philosophy's ties to settler colonialism and its role as both an object and a force of decolonization.

In Decolonizing American Philosophy, Corey McCall and Phillip McReynolds bring together leading scholars at the forefront of the field to ask: Can American philosophy, as the product of a colonial enterprise, be decolonized? Does American philosophy offer tools for decolonial projects? What might it mean to decolonize American philosophy and, at the same time, is it possible to consider American philosophy, broadly construed, as a part of a decolonizing project? The various perspectives included here contribute to long-simmering conversations about the scope, purpose, and future of American philosophy, while also demonstrating that it is far from a unified, homogeneous field. In drawing connections among various philosophical traditions in and of the Americas, they collectively propose that the process of decolonization is not only something that needs to be done to American philosophy but also that it is something American philosophy already does, or at least can do, as a resource for resisting colonial and racist oppression.

Corey McCall taught philosophy at Elmira College. He is the coeditor (with Nathan Ross) of Benjamin, Adorno, and the Experience of Literature and (with Tom Nurmi) of Melville among the Philosophers. Phillip McReynolds taught philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and is the author of The American Philosopher: Interviews on the Meaning of Life and Truth.