Foundations of Black Epistemology: Knowledge Discourse in Africana Philosophy [Hardcover]

Foundations of Black Epistemologyis Adebayo Oluwayomi’s bold endeavor to delineate Black epistemology as a new sub-disciplinary focus in contemporary Africana or Black philosophy. He engages in a rigorous historical study of Black intellectual history to show how seminal Black thinkers have long been interested in and engaged with questions concerning the phenomenon of human knowledge, and questions around human agency, including practical considerations regarding the social and political value of knowledge.

Foundations of Black Epistemologyexamines writings by Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. DuBois, Frantz Fanon, Steve Bantu Biko, Huey P. Newton, and Kathleen Neal Cleaver. Each chapter addresses issues of self-knowledge, self-assertion, Black consciousness, or anticolonialism and its relation to personal and political epistemologies.

Oluwayomi offers innovative perspectives on the formulation, deduction, and interrogation of epistemological themes within Black Africana philosophy. By considering the important epistemological theories and arguments in Black philosophy particularly in the last 150 to 200 years,Foundations of Black Epistemologypromises to generate new discussions around this necessary field of Black Africana philosophy.Forthcoming Spring 2025"[A] necessary read for all those who, despite the global dominance of post-truth ideology, still believe in the importance of knowledge and its power to make the world a better place."—Modern Times Review“Oluwayomi has provided an array of epistemologies, in both their competing lines of reason and the convergent lines of agreement. In so doing, he uncovers the foundations—that is, the background assumptions and starting points enlivening a heritage of issues and debates long hidden in plain sight. Oluwayomi is to be applauded.Foundations of Black Epistemologywill belã0