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Who thinks for us when we delegate our thinking to others?

Francisco Miraval

I recently attended a conference on philosophy, organized by a prestigious national organization. In spite of having studied philosophy for more than three decades, I understood almost nothing of what the presenters said.

I was deeply concerned about that situation. I do not pretend to know every detail about every philosophical system –and I will never be able to do it–, but I think I have enough knowledge to attend a conference about philosophy and understand what is being said.

After two or three sessions, and almost without thinking about it, I understood (at least partially) what was happening: they were no speaking to me. I was trying to be part of a dialogue I was not a participant.

Of the almost 100 participants in the conference, only about 15 percent were women (one Asian). In addition, of the 27 presenters, only three were women. There were two or three Latino men and two or three Asian men. And that was the extent of the diversity at that conference. All other participants and presenters were White men.

I am not concerned by the presence of White men at a conference dedicated to philosophy (even when I do not accept many of the elements of the Euroamerican way of thinking), but I am concerned about the absence of other groups I would like to see in the context of philosophy and thinking.

My first reaction was to assume that perhaps those other groups, the so-called “minorities” and the women, were simply not present at the conference, for whatever reason. However, it seems that is not the case.

A quick online search for statistics about philosophy classes in colleges and universities revealed that less than 4 percent of college students majoring in philosophy are women or minorities. And the percentage of minority college professors is even lower.

In other words, I was wrong in assuming minorities did not attend the conference. It seems that, beyond the small percentages mentioned above, minorities are not part of the philosophical dialogue in academia, not even in a conference that said to be “open” and “inclusive,” but only in a limited fashion.

I know it sounds that I have constructed yet another “Woe is me!” argument to cover the fact I was unprepared for the understand presentations about, for example, the connection between quantum physics and free will. Granted: the grapes were sour.

However, it seems to me it should be clear that we are not inviting our young to study philosophy and to prepare the soil for seeds of understanding of our ever-changing reality.

The exclusion (self-exclusion?) of minorities from the philosophical dialogue also affects all students, regardless of the career they follow, because it creates the false idea that only certain persons can teach philosophy.

Now I understand why a young Latina student, after being informed I was her humanities professor, went to the college administration to request a change in her schedule, saying that only “Americans” can teach “such a complex” topic.

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