Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x24gv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-08T11:23:07.429Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Being a Foreigner in Philosophy: A Taxonomy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Verena Erlenbusch
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The question of diversity, both with regard to the demographic profile of philosophers as well as the content of philosophical inquiry, has received much attention in recent years. One figure that has gone relatively unnoticed is that of the foreigner. To the extent that philosophers have taken the foreigner as their object of inquiry, they have focused largely on challenges nonnative speakers of English face in a profession conducted predominantly in English. Yet an understanding of the foreigner in terms of the nonnative speaker does not exhaust the conceptual space of the foreigner. This article provides a more nuanced conceptual apparatus that allows for a more precise identification and discussion of other ways in which one can be a foreigner in philosophy. I develop a taxonomy of different conceptions of the foreigner, namely the linguistic, material, cultural, and epistemic foreigner; I discuss the different and specific challenges they face; and I show how foreigners enrich philosophical practice.

Type
Cluster on Foreigners in Philosophy
Information
Hypatia , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , Spring 2018 , pp. 307 - 324
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

[Correction added on February 12, 2018, after online publication: Publication year for the reference, “How is this paper philosophy” by Kristie Dotson was changed to 2012.]

References

Academic placement data and analysis. 2016. http://placementdata.com/ (accessed November 27, 2016).Google Scholar
Akehurst, Thomas L. 2010. The cultural politics of analytic philosophy: Britishness and the spectre of Europe. New York: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Alexander, Michelle. 2010. The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New York: The New Press.Google Scholar
Arvan, Marcus. 2012. Pedigree and the market. The Philosophers’ Cocoon. October 13. http://philosopherscocoon.typepad.com/blog/2012/10/pedigree-and-the-market.html (accessed June 29, 2017).Google Scholar
Arvan, Marcus. 2014. On sample data on this year's TT hires. The Philosophers’ Cocoon. April 12. http://philosopherscocoon.typepad.com/blog/2014/04/on-sample-data-on-this-years-tt-hires.html (accessed June 29, 2017).Google Scholar
Ayala, Saray. 2015. Philosophy and the non‐native speaker condition. American Philosophical Association Newsletter in Feminism and Philosophy 14 (2): 2–9.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1986. The forms of capital. In Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education, ed. Richardson, John G.New York: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Brennan, Eileen M., and Brennan, John Stephen. 1981. Accent scaling and language attitudes: Reactions to Mexican American English speech. Language and Speech 24 (3): 207–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Bruce L., Giles, Howard, and Thakerar, Jitendra N. 1985. Speaker evaluations as a function of speech rate, accent and context. Language & Communication 5 (3): 207–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Contessa, Gabriele. 2014. Analytic philosophy and the English language: Some data and some preliminary thoughts. Yet Another Philosopher's Blog?!?, September 29. http://yetanotherphilosophersblog.blogspot.com/2014/09/analytic-philosophy-and-english.html (accessed June 29, 2017).Google Scholar
Davila, A., Bohara, A. K., and Saenz, R. 1993. Accent penalties and the earnings of Mexican Americans. Social Science Quarterly 74 (4): 902–16.Google Scholar
De Cruz, Helen. 2014. Hiring, academic pedigree, and exclusion: Is going for pedigree racist and classist? New APPS: Art, Politics, Philosophy, Science, April 14. http://www.newappsblog.com/2014/04/hiring-academic-pedigree-and-exclusion-is-going-for-pedigree-racist-and-classist-.html (accessed June 29, 2017).Google Scholar
De Cruz, Helen. 2016. Prestige: The first and final hurdle for a more inclusive philosophy. Unpublished study. https://www.academia.edu/25736257/Prestige_The_first_and_final_hurdle_for_a_more_inclusive_philosophy (accessed November 26, 2016).Google Scholar
Deleuze, Gilles, and Guattari, Félix. 1994. What is philosophy? Trans. Hugh Tomlinson and Graham Burchell. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Dotson, Kristie. 2012. How is this paper philosophy? Comparative Philosophy 3 (1): 3–29.Google Scholar
Dotson, Kristie. 2012. A cautionary tale: On limiting epistemic oppression. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 33 (1): 24–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engel, Pascal. 1987. Continental insularity: Contemporary French analytical philosophy. Royal Institute of Philosophy Lectures 21: 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finlayson, Lorna. 2015. The political is political: Conformity and the illusion of dissent in contemporary political philosophy. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Fricker, Miranda. 2007. Epistemic injustice: Power and the ethics of knowing. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fuchs, Robert. 2015. You're not from around here, are you? A dialect discrimination experiment with speakers of British and Indian English. In Prosody and language in contact: L2 acquisition, attrition and languages in multilingual situations, ed. Delais‐Roussarie, Elisabeth, Avanzi, Mathieu, and Herment, Sophie. Berlin: Springer.Google Scholar
Garrett, Peter. 2010. Attitudes to language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaw, Kevin F. 2000. Reverse culture shock in students returning from overseas. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 24 (1): 83–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giles, Howard. 1970. Evaluative reactions to accents. Educational Review 22 (3): 211–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glock, Hans‐Johann. 2008. What is analytic philosophy? Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Haslanger, Sally. 2011. Ideology, generics, and common ground. In Feminist metaphysics, ed. Witt, Charlotte. New York: Springer Verlag.Google Scholar
Hirono, Miwa. 2015. My home office hell. Times Higher Education (THE), March 26. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/comment/opinion/miwa-hirono-my-home-office-hell/2019275.article (accessed June 29, 2017).Google Scholar
Honig, Bonnie. 2003. Democracy and the foreigner. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
James, Ian. 2012. The new French philosophy. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Jenkins, Fiona. 2013. Singing the post‐discrimination blues: Notes for a critique of academic meritocracy. In Women in philosophy: What needs to change?, ed. Hutchison, Katrina and Jenkins, Fiona. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Jump, Paul. 2015. Visa refusal for China expert Miwa Hirono is “pure Madness.” Times Higher Education (THE), March 19. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/visa-refusal-for-china-expert-miwa-hirono-is-pure-madness/2019182.article (accessed June 29, 2017).Google Scholar
Klein, Wolfgang. 1986. Second language acquisition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leiter, Brian. 2013. A cautionary tale for those needing a green card to work in the U.S. Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog, September 24. http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2013/09/a-cautionary-tale-for-those-needing-a-green-card-to-work-in-the-us.html (accessed June 29, 2017).Google Scholar
Levis, John M., and Moyer, Alene, eds. 2014. Social dynamics in second language accent. Boston: Walter de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindemann, Stephanie. 2003. Koreans, Chinese or Indians? Attitudes and ideologies about non‐native English speakers in the United States. Journal of Sociolinguistics 7 (3): 348–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Medina, José. 2012. The epistemology of resistance: Gender and racial oppression, epistemic injustice, and resistant imaginations. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mizrahi, Moti. 2013. Non‐native English speakers in philosophy. The Philosophers’ Cocoon, January 4. http://philosopherscocoon.typepad.com/blog/2013/01/non-native-english-speakers-in-philosophy.html (accessed June 29, 2017).Google Scholar
Mizrahi, Moti. 2014. Sara Protasi on ESL philosophers. The Philosopher's Cocoon, October 30. http://philosopherscocoon.typepad.com/blog/2014/10/sara-protasi-on-esl-philosophers-.html (accessed June 29, 2017).Google Scholar
Mr. Zero. 2012. Untitled post on narrowing the applicant field. The Philosophy Smoker, October 10. https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6986017020085172340&postID=6626346384424401319&bpli=1 (accessed June 29, 2017).Google Scholar
Nesdale, Drew, and Rooney, Rosanna. 1996. Evaluations and stereotyping of accented speakers by pre‐adolescent children. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 15 (2): 133–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pluralist's guide: A philosopher's guide to graduate programs. 2016. http://sites.psu.edu/pluralistsguide/ (accessed March 22, 2017).Google Scholar
Priest, Graham. 2006. What is philosophy? Philosophy 81 (316): 189–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Protasi, Sara. 2014. Another perspective on ESL philosophy. Feminist Philosophers, October 29. https://feministphilosophers.wordpress.com/2014/10/29/another-perspective-on-esl-philosophy/ (accessed June 29, 2017).Google Scholar
Purnell, Thomas, Idsardi, William, and Baugh, John. 1999. Perceptual and phonetic experiments on American English dialect identification. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 18 (1): 10–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pütz, Martin, and Sicola, Laura, eds. 2010. Cognitive processing in second language acquisition: Inside the learner's mind. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rooney, Phyllis. 2012. When philosophical argumentation impedes social and political progress. Journal of Social Philosophy 43 (3): 317–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryan, E. B., Carranza, M. A., and Moffie, R. W. 1977. Reactions toward varying degrees of accentedness in the speech of Spanish‐English bilinguals. Language and Speech 20 (3): 267–73.Google ScholarPubMed
Said, Edward W. 2002. Reflections on exile. In Reflections on exile and other essays. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Salamon, Gayle. 2009. Justification and queer method, or leaving philosophy. Hypatia 24 (1): 225–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saul, Jennifer. 2012. Ranking exercises in philosophy and implicit bias. Journal of Social Philosophy 43 (3): 256–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sears, Coreen. 1998. Second language students in mainstream classrooms: A handbook for teachers in international schools. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Stanley, Jason. 2015. How propaganda works. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Urciuoli, Bonnie. 2013. Exposing prejudice: Puerto Rican experiences of language, race, and class. Long Grove, Ill.: Waveland Press.Google Scholar
Weinberg, Justin. 2015a. Research advice for non‐native English speaking philosophers. Daily Nous, March 4. http://dailynous.com/2015/03/04/research-advice-for-non-native-english-speaking-philosophers/ (accessed June 29, 2017).Google Scholar
Weinberg, Justin. 2015b. When non‐philosophers teach “critical thinking.” Daily Nous, October 16. http://dailynous.com/2015/10/16/when-non-philosophers-teach-critical-thinking/ (accessed June 29, 2017).Google Scholar
What is it like to be a foreigner in academia? 2016. What is it like to be a foreigner in academia? https://beingaforeignerinacademia.wordpress.com/ (accessed November 25, 2016).Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walt. 2013. Sound effects: Challenging language prejudice in the classroom. Education Digest 79 (1): 27–30.Google Scholar
Wolfson, Martin. 1958. What is philosophy? Journal of Philosophy 55 (8): 322–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yavnik, Elif. n.d. Ensuring justice and enriching philosophy: On the reality of foreigners in philosophy today. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Young, Vershawn Ashanti, Barrett, Rusty, Young‐Rivera, Y'Shanda, and Lovejoy, Kim Brian. 2013. Other people's English: Code‐meshing, code‐switching, and African American literacy. New York: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar