Resistance in American Philosophy

In their book American Philosophy, Erin McKenna and Scott Pratt trace various strands of pluralism in American philosophical traditions, understood to include not only Anglo- but also African-, Native-, and Latin-American philosophies, feminism, and so on.  

Pluralism is the recommendable philosophical alternative to exclusionary and assimilationist attitudes towards difference. Pluralist philosophies recognize the irreducible plurality of lived experience and the resulting plurality in life-guiding principles, ideals, and ways of living among people.

McKenna and Pratt go further to link this pluralism to various traditions of philosophical resistance arising from diverse American experiences. Stating their thesis, they write:

"What then is a philosophy of resistance? First it is one that challenges dogma and settled belief from a perspective that recognizes the pluralism of experience and the value of growth and change. It is resistance in an expected way because it takes on systems of domination as a necessary step in a process of liberation. At the same time, American philosophies of resistance do not rest with criticism but actively work to establish alternative ways of thinking and living." (p. 6)

These philosophies are resistant, then, in at least two ways. First, they find their source for critical reflection in lived experiences that are different from mainstream, dominant, and hegemonic patterns of experience. Second, they guide thoughtful practices that challenge and resist dominant ways of living, creating alternatives. 

Significantly, the first example of a resistant practice that they mention is dancing—specifically, the 1890 Ghost Dance by the Lakota Sioux. Let me turn next to their discussion of that case.

Citations: Erin McKenna and Scott Pratt, American Philosophy: From Wounded Knee to the Present (London: Bloomsbury, 2015).

"Sioux Ghost Dance" - 1890 photograph by Granger