Step 1: introduction

Viola Cordova, one of the first Indigenous women to obtain a PhD in Philosophy in the United States, asserts that if we want to live on the earth without wrecking it, we cannot afford to limit ourselves to one way of thinking.

—> In this context, what do you think it is that she values so much about being open to a variety of ways of thinking?

The 20 steps in this dropdown are going to scratch the surface of what might be going on. They are going to try and learn from Indigenous philosohies - and, in the process, they are also going to look at why this can be difficult for those of us who have grown up only within contemporary Western culture.

One reason why Indigenous voices are not always heard is a straightforward numbers game: in an electoral system that counts everyone’s votes equally, minority groups are often going to be outnumbered.

Another reason is discrimination: examples are going to show that even in this day and age, discrimination against Indigenous individuals and groups is still rife.

A third reason is easily overlooked, because it can be genuinely difficult to spot: some of the underlying assumptions we make without even thinking about them can make it difficult to see what someone who thinks differently might be talking about. For example,

—> What do you think of when you hear the word “person”?

In the contemporary West, most of us will think of a human. I most certainly did, when I first asked myself this question. On second thoughts, many of us will include Science Fiction characters who look and behave much as a human would. Some of us will probably include certain animals, again because we have seen them display human-like characteristics.

If we think of someone as a “person”, we usually treat them differently: for example, we regularly cook vegetables, but we won’t usually cook another “person”.

Indigenous philosophers tend to think of a “person” as a potential partner in relationship - whether or not they are human, and whether or not they look or act like a human.

This doesn’t mean that if we want to learn from Indigenous philosophers, we have to stop eating vegetables. For one thing, learning from someone’s experience doesn’t have to involve doing exactly the same thing that they do. For another, Indigenous philosophers eat vegetables too.

Viola Cordova relates a conversation that she had with her father at the dinner table. They were talking about what it meant to eat a living being - in their case, an onion. Then they thanked the onion for giving its life for them. Then they ate the onion. Other Indigenous authors have, relatedly, talked about customs of respectful behaviour before, during, and after a hunt.

Whatever our own future relationship with our food is now going to be, one thing is for sure: if an Indigenous philosopher says “person” and we think they have said “human”, then we are likely to end up talking past each other.

This is one example of different assumptions making it difficult to understand each other when we are trying to build bridges between two different worldviews. Besides the above numbers game and besides discrimination, talking past each other is another reason why we don’t yet hear Indigenous philosophers mentioned much here in Europe.

After this introductory chapter, there are going to be nineteen more. The direction of travel is going to be one of getting to know the work of Indigenous philosophers in its own right: the bibliography of the PhD thesis where all this came from is also on this web site (just click on “The long version” in the top right corner of any screen) , and it lists everyone referenced. (The thesis is a good place to go if you are interested in exact references, and/or in more detail. It is a bit of a long read, though. I wouldn’t start with that; I would save it for later if and see if you still want it then.)

To help bridge the gap between worldviews, two more things are going to happen. Firstly, some contemporary Western stepping stones are going to be introduced (and then left behind because they can only carry us part of the way towards engagement with Indigenous philosophies). Secondly, there are going to be chapters reflecting on what it might be about our own, contemporary Western way of being in the world that makes it difficult for us to understand what Indigenous philosophers are talking about. These chapters are going to question whether our own way of thinking is always as helpful as we think.