People with Unusual, Minority, Culturally Atypical, or Historically Underrepresented Experiences and Worldviews Should be Overrepresented in Philosophy, Rather than Underrepresented
Saturday's post finding that only 16% of Authors in Elite Philosophy Journals Are Women brought out the misogynist bros on Twitter, but also some remarks from well-meaning people along the lines of "maybe women (ethnic minorities, etc.) just aren't that interested in philosophy".
I expressed my rejection of this perspective in a post for the Blog of the APA in 2020. Perhaps it warrants reposting:
There is nothing about philosophy, as a type of inquiry into fundamental facts about our world, that should make it more attractive to White men than to Black women. Philosophical reflection is an essential part of the human condition, of interest to people of all cultures, races, classes, and social groups. If our discipline and society were in a healthy, egalitarian condition, we should, in fact, expect people from minority groups to be overrepresented in academic philosophy, rather than underrepresented. Academic philosophy should celebrate diversity of opinion, encourage challenges to orthodoxy, and reward fresh perspectives that come from inhabiting cultures and having life experiences different from the mainstream. We should be eager, not reluctant, to hear from a wide range of voices. We should especially welcome, rather than create an inhospitable or cool environment for, people with unusual or minority or culturally atypical or historically underrepresented experiences and worldviews. The productive engine of philosophy depends on novelty and difference.
What do you think of the recent discussion over the lack of men in literary fiction?
(Bit of a gotcha but four potential positions (or more!) are possible.)
"We should especially welcome, rather than create an inhospitable or cool environment for, people with unusual or minority or culturally atypical or historically underrepresented experiences and worldviews."
Do you think it's possible to do this without compromising the standard of rigor required to publish in top journals? In a sense isn't the process of getting a PhD in philosophy learning *how* to argue with a high degree of rigor in the Western academic tradition? I'm trying to imagine what it would look like to have alternative worldviews included and it's hard for me not to imagine them getting ripped to pieces. I'm thinking back to discussions that rejected academic epistemology as racist and promoted 'other ways of knowing'...okay, do you thing, but how are you going to participate in academic philosophy if you reject the ground rules?
This is not an argument that women or minorities can't participate in academic philosophy, but rather that to the degree they do won't their voices be regularized into the tradition by dint of the study it takes to get them a seat at the table?