History of Philosophy: India, Africana, China

Co-host Karyn introduces herself to the listeners and talks about the challenges of tackling classical Chinese philosophical texts.

Early Chinese philosophers were deeply aware of a world that is constantly changing: we look at how Confucians, Legalists, and Daoists responded to this challenge.

Introducing Chinese philosophy through the concept of "dao," a fundamental word in classical Chinese philosophy, with a range of meanings across its different traditions.

How Africana philosophy looked to a young Chike Jeffers, coming into the field in the early 21st century.

The key events and figures in philosophy as an academic discipline, in both Africa and the diaspora.

Cornel West joins us to look back on the development of his thought and the many authors who have inspired him.

An introduction to Cornel West, focusing on his early essay “Philosophy and the Afro-American Experience.”

A movement of legal scholars diagnoses the limitations of merely “formal” measures against discrimination, a point they connect to issues like affirmative action, democratic process, and intersectionality.

What inspired Asante's controversial philosophy of Afrocentricity, and its relationship to religion, nationalism, and feminism.

How writers like George G.M. James, John Henrik Clarke, Cheikh Anta Diop, Yosef ben-Jochannan, and Chancellor Williams prepared the way for the Afrocentricity of Molefi Asante and captured the imaginations of hip hop artists and intellectuals like Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Sylvia Wynter offers a bold and provocative assessment of the role of the humanities in understanding humankind.

Cedric J. Robinson reflects on the power and limitations of Marxism while charting the past and prospects of black radical thought.

The author of an important book on Glissant joins us to talk about his approach to this major Caribbean thinker.

Poet, novelist, playwright and philosopher Edouard Glissant, his theory of "creolization", and the Creolists who were influence by him.

Stuart Hall pioneers “cultural studies,” offering tools for analysis of films, television, fiction and music that were put to use by followers like Paul Gilroy and Hazel Carby.

The great Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o joins us to speak about his career, his influences, and the power and politics of language.

How one of Kenya's greatest writers came to argue that African literature should be written in African languages.

We bring the story of black feminism up to the turn of the century with the incisive works of bell hooks and Patricia Hill Collins.

In poetry and prose, especially her collection "Sister Outsider," Audre Lorde explores ideas of difference, eroticism, and feminist theory.

The eventful life and penetrating philosophy of Angela Davis, an icon of resistance deeply informed by Marxism and influential on black feminist thought.

Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou and Alice Walker explore the themes of black feminism (or “womanism”) in their fiction. Warning: this episode contains discussion of sexual violence and suicide.

1970s black feminists like Toni Cade Bambara, the Combahee River Collective, and Awa Thiam critique white feminist and black nationalist failures to recognize the unique struggle of the black woman.

Another Caribbean thinker, Walter Rodney of Guyana, explores Africana history from a Marxist perspective.

Famous for his killing at the hands of the Apartheid government in South Africa, Steve Biko was also a deep thinker, who introduced the notion of Black Consciousness.

The political and musical revolution of Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat, and the social critique of his cousin, the playwright Wole Soyinka.

How the Rastafari movement grew from trends within Africana philosophy, and then passed into global popular culture in the music of Bob Marley and other reggae artists.

Sun Ra and Parliament-Funkadelic return to claim the pyramids, and Octavia Butler uses science fiction to confront the brutal past of slavery.

Abdias do Nascimento, a leader in Brazilian theater and politics, and his theory of Qilombismo.

The career and ideas of Nelson Mandela up to the time of his imprisonment, in the context of the founding of the African National Congress.

Two scholars of the same name join us to shed further light on Amílcar Cabral.

Amílcar Cabral, leader of a revolution against colonialism in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, rethinks culture and Marxist theory as bases for his struggle.

The first leader of independent Tanzania grounds his socialist ideas in traditional African values.

After Albert Cleage and James Cone propose a liberatory interpretation of Christianity, William R. Jones wonders whether God is a white racist. We also follow Black Theology among “Womanist” authors and in South Africa.

African American literature of the late 1960s reflects the Black Power movement, in the works of such authors as Amiri Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, Haki Madhubuti, Larry Neal, and Sonia Sanchez.

The controversial career of the Pan-Africanist philosopher Maulana Karenga, inventor of the holiday Kwanzaa.

The philosophical underpinnings of a “vanguard of revolution” led by Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, and Eldridge Cleaver: the Black Panther Party.

How the controversial slogan “black power,” used by activists like Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown, relates to ideas of militancy, separatism, and the power of language.

The underestimated radicalism of Lorraine Hansberry, author of the famous play "A Raisin in the Sun".

We're joined by a leading Fanon expert to talk about a range of themes in his work: Negritude, psychiatry, and violence.

Fanon’s incendiary final work explores the violent process of decolonization.

Frantz Fanon combines existentialist philosophy and psychiatry to diagnose the condition of the colonialized target of racism.

The first leader of independent Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, writes against neocolonialism and in favor of socialism and Pan-Africanism.

Two Nigerian activists lead the struggle for independence, and clash over the competing values of national unity and ethnic diversity.

The Cuban activist and author Juan Rene Betancourt urges racial solidarity and reckons with the revolution under Castro and the island’s turn towards Communism.

After 1963, the views of Malcolm X and MLK came closer together, on topics including internationalism, political engagement, and economics.

Chike joins Peter to look back at our coverage of Africana philosophy in the first half of the 20th century.

The life and career of Malcolm X up to 1963, with a focus on his separatist black nationalism and his critique of non-violent protest.

An interview about the role of the emotions, including anger and feelings of dignity, with MLK expert Meena Krishnamurthy.

The story of Martin Luther King Jr. up to 1963, focusing on the development of his philosophy of nonviolence.

In "The Fire Next Time" and other writings, the essayist and novelist James Baldwin seeks to dispel the illusions surrounding racial and sexual difference.