Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T17:29:00.372Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Global Role of US Philosophy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

William L. McBride*
Affiliation:
Purdue University
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This essay focuses on the danger of complicity. American philosophers, given their country's hegemonic position, exert global influence; what form should it take? Comparison is made with the situation of France when it still controlled Algeria. French philosophers, until near the time of Algerian independence, generally accepted and sometimes profited from this extremely unjust situation. An important exception was Sartre, particularly in his Preface to Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth. It is argued that elements of complicity with American global dominance, some of the more unjust aspects of which are listed, are to be found in such widely read philosophers as Rawls and Rorty. It is suggested that a rethinking of the problem of evil, in its political and not just its religious aspects, is in order. Finally, a broader view of what ‘American philosophy’ means, including, for instance, the voices of African American and Native American philosophers, is urged.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2004

References

Harris, Leonard, Pratt, Scott L. and Waters, Anne, eds (2001) American Philosophies: An Anthology. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Honderich, Ted (2002) After the Terror. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
McBride, William L. (1998a) ‘Reply to Wonsup Jung’, Philosophical Forum (Seoul University, Department of Philosophy) 26: 233240.Google Scholar
McBride, William L. (1998b) Review of C. Phelps’s Young Sidney Hook, in Canadian Philosophical Reviews, XVIII (6) December: 443.Google Scholar
McBride, William L. (2001) From Yugoslav Praxis to Global Pathos: Anti-Hegemonic Post-post-Marxist Essays. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Nizan, Paul (1960) Les Chiens de garde. Paris: François Maspero.Google Scholar
Sartre, J.-P. (1964) Situations, V. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar