CHARLES W. CHESNUTT LIBRARY ELECTRONIC RESERVE COLLECTI.docx

CHARLES W. CHESNUTT LIBRARY
ELECTRONIC RESERVE COLLECTION
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Robert C. Williams
During the tenth decade of his unusually eventful and scholarly
life, the
Afro-American thinker William Edward Burghardt DuBois
(1868-1963) ut-
tered insightful and prophetic words which summarized his view
of American..- .-.._
social reality:
Government is for the people’s progress and not for the comfort
of an
aristocracy. The object of industry is the welfare of the workers
and not
the wealth of the owners. The object of civilization is the
cultural
progress of the mass of workers and not merely of the
intellectual elite.
(from a speech to the world over
delivered in Peking, China, on his
n i n e t y - f i r s t b i r t h d a y , 1 9 5 9 )
No universal selfishness can bring social good to all . . [or]
restore
democracy in [the USA] . . . [the path of social progress in
America]
will call for:
1. Public ownership of natural resources and of all capital.
2 . P u b l i c c o n t r o l o f t r a n s p o r t a t i o n a n d c
o m m u n i c a t i o n s .
3. Abolition of poverty and limitation of personal income.
4. No exploitation of labor.
5. Social medicine, with hospitalization and care of the old.
6. Free education for all.

7. Training for jobs and jobs for all.
8 . D i s c i p l i n e f o r g r o w t h a n d r e f o r m .
9. Freedom under law.
10. No dogmatic religion.
(from letter of application for membership in
t h e C o m m u n i s t P a r t y o f t h e U S A , 1 9 6 1 )
In this all too brief essay I will not attempt to challenge the
above as-
sertions since I regard them as well-founded. Instead, I will
argue that the
writings of DuBois support the above observations as
characteristic of his
evolving social philosophy. His views, as expressed above, are
substantiated
in at least two ways. First, they relate to the realities of politics
and social
change/stratification which he repeatedly experienced in
twentieth century
America. Second, they convey his sense---expressed in
numerous ways
throughout his writings-that some form of democratic or radical
socialism
will constitute the basis of political thought and the
organization of national
life in America’s future. These two ways of assessing DuBois’
philosophical
analysis of social reality relate to present-day endeavors to
articulate the ne-
cessity, legitimacy and content of social philosophy in the Afro-
American con-
text. In fact, mutual interdependence-forged upon the anvil of
human- -
11

nineteenth century both the Jeffersonian and Jacksonian
versions of American
political aspirations had lost the spirit of the Enlightenment,
had bartered
with strange bedfellows in order to pursue the
economic/philosophical inter-
ests of certain dominant political groups, and had thereby
become functionally
(though perhaps not ideologically) disengaged from all
significant humani-
tarian concerns.‘
But the latter part of the nineteenth century saw the rise of a
critical-
realistic perspective in the assessment and espousal of the
political and social
dimensions of American life. This perspective enabled
observers, dreamers,
and critics of the nation to view the processes of industrialism
and the con-
comitant spread of the workings of scientific thought as the
basis for forging
a more adequate view of the complex evolving American
cultural fabric. Eco-
nomics, psychology and history were three of the major forces
operating in
the dominant thought at this time (1890-1910).5
It is noteworthy that the Afro-American thinker W. E. B.

DuBois came
upon the American intellectual scene during this very creative
and trouble-
some era. He pioneered in and championed the new empirical
emphasis in
social science and history. He achieved this distinction by
stressing class and
social environment as major causal agents in personality
formation and the
sociological understanding of reality.6 His emergence as a
social theoretician
and critic/activist came about as he was in the process of
ferreting out his
philosophical views on the nature of community and social
change.
When DuBois completed his graduate work in 1896 he was
totally im-
mersed in the rigors of scientific research and had made a
personal commit-
ment (contrary to his earlier wish to do philosophy’) to
undertake a career as
a writer and teacher in the social sciences. The Philadelphia
Negro (1899)
was his great work in the social sciences, being an impressive
monograph that
deals with social stratification as an index into understanding
the plight and
social condition of the Negro population. In this seminal
sociological study,
DuBois observed that
N o t w i t h s t a n d i n g t h e l a r g e i n f l u e n c e o f t
h e p h y s i c a l e n v i r o n m e n t o f
h o m e a n d w a r d , n e v e r t h e l e s s t h e r e i s a f a
r m i g h t e r i n f l u e n c e t o m o l d

a n d m a k e t h e c i t i z e n , a n d t h a t i s t h e s o c i
a l a t m o s p h e r e w h i c h s u r r o u n d s
him: first his daily companionship, the thoughts and whims of
his class;
t h e n h i s r e c r e a t i o n s a n d a m u s e m e n t s ; f i n
a l l y , t h e s u r r o u n d i n g w o r l d o f
American civilization.*
The “surrounding world of American civilization” in 1900 was
an existential
reality that the thinker DuBois could not cavalierly dismiss or
arrogantly wish
away. DuBois could not turn his back upon this facet of the
American reality
because the problem it posed was his problem (the problem of
being back in
a world dominated by whites).
My life had its significance and its only deep significance
because it was
p a r t o f a p r o b l e m ; b u t t h a t p r o b l e m w a s , a
s I c o n t i n u e t o t h i n k , t h e
c e n t r a l p r o b l e m o f t h e g r e a t e s t o f t h e w o
r l d ’ s d e m o c r a c i e s a n d s o t h e
p r o b l e m o f t h e f u t u r e w o r l d .
Social Philosophy
Rights and duties are inextricably interwoven into the cultural
fabric of
American democracy. DuBois’ philosophical perspective on the
social life of

Afro-Americans was a reflection upon the chief problematic of
the American
identity both in actuality and in terms of its ideal creed: the
reality of the
American people in community and national vocation. And this
crisis of iden-
tity in community and collective purpose is, as DuBois sensed
all too clearly,
was inadequately treated in the philosophical probings of
American intellec-
tuals. This is what made DuBois’ encounter with American
philosophy so dis-
s a t i s f y i n g .
It was both Royce and DuBois who emerged in the American
intellec-
tual tradition as articulate voices treating the problematic of the
American
identity (vis-a-vis rights and duties) in its collective and social
dimensions.
Royce’s philosophical studies treated the motif of community-
in-loyality as
the creative perspective by means of which the American
experiment is to be
understood; and DuBois’ massive historical study of the attempt
to democ-
ratize the American nation through the actualities of the
Reconstruction era
looms as a classic example of probing that period in the
American experience
in all of the departments of its social-political-economic life.
Those who read
DuBois’ Black Reconstruction and Royce’s The Hope of the
Great Com-
munity back-to-back are in for a real intellectual challenge. And
yet Santay-

ana’s comment that Royce “seemed to view everything in
relation to something
else that remained untold0’6 .IS not an apt delineation of
DuBois’ evolving view
of things social, for DuBois’ view entailed his sensing that
detached inquiry
was not enough and that the truth alone did not encourage or
enhance social
reform.” Royce the philosopher was a blend of the necessarily
moral and the
detached observer (“Moralism and an apology for evil could
thus be recon-
ciled and merged in the praises of tragic experience”).r8 But
DuBois the scholar
was in actuality really only a graft on DuBois the Negro, thus
prohibiting him
from being merely a cool, calm, and detached scientist (“My
life had its sig-
nificance . . . because it was part of a problem . . . the problem
of the color-
line.“)lg Royce’s idea of community was couched in optimistic
terms (i.e., that
the diversity of ideas and the pervasiveness of human error
could only be han-
dled by means of the coexistence of all types of human beings
who exist via
a principle of loyality).zO This view of community was, in the
final analysis,
too sentimental and tame to guide the searchings and social
analysis developed
by DuBois. For DuBois, the problematic of the Black American
identity
through time was not infused with a calculated and measured
idealism. His
analysis was more radical-based as it was upon the reality and
ambiguity of

black existence in pursuit of justice, of a loyality and mutual
interdependence
that demanded the American people grant real equity, liberty,
and opportu-
nity to every citizen.
What DuBois espoused in his personal philosophy he firmly
believed to
be incumbent upon the American people: “I am by birth and law
a free black
American citizen. As such I have both rights and duties. If I
neglect my duties
15
With his characteristic knack for analysis, DuBois argued early
in this century
that blackness and black consciousness were significant
components of black
reality-were of the essence and ambiguity of being black in
America. He
cited a double-consciousness as descriptive of black people and
stipulated that
this myopia of a dual or bipolar consciousness/identity
produced a funda-
mental alienation in black folks: caused them to view
themselves both through
their own eyes and “through the eyes of othersttZ8 This self-
consciousness in
alienation is problematic because it embodies both the seeds of
self-disregard
and self-liberation (it is, as DuBois clearly recognized, the self

in realization
of itself-the self in search of its own identity and fulfillment
through the
presence of the other. More often than not, this ‘other’ was the
pervasive hand
of white oppression). Hence a pervasive contradiction and/or
ambiguity is the
factor upon which the dual consciousness of the Negro is
structured-a phe-
nomenon related to the yes and no of black life as it encounters
in reciprocity
white life (“Self-consciousness attains its satisfaction only in
another self-con-
sciousness”-Hegel, Phenomenology o/Spirit). This insight is
indispensable
for articulating the totality of the American-and the black-
experience in
the New World. Such a view is relevant and necessary to any
viable program
in American philosophy. For an analysis of consciousness--of
an epoch, a na-
tion, or a people-is one reliable means of carrying out the task
of philosophy.
An analysis of American consciousness that excludes black
consciousness is
f l a w e d .
And a black philosophy would assume the fundamental value of
an eth-
nic perspective and/or identity. Even assuming that philosophy
is an under-
taking committed to a search for the genera1 and regulative
principles of human
existence, then a black and/or Afro-American philosophy would
enhance such
an endeavor by elucidating the ambiguities and particularities of

black life.
Accordingly, the social dimension of the black experience
would be a very
important factor in such a task. To the degree that it succeeds in
shattering
the illusion of a possible freedom in racial bondage and
individual self-deter-
mination, and to the degree that it provides a corrective to those
philosophies
that support ethnic oppression and the cultural/cognitive
invisibility of black
people, black philosophy will enhance the task of philosophy in
general and
will also stand in the sociological/philosophical tradition of
DuBois. That is,
that no form of universal or individual selfishness will yield a
social good and
that the basis of social solidarity is mutual interdependence. If
it follows the
polemical and searching tradition of the Afro-American thinker
DuBois, a
black and/or Afro-American social philosophy would be the
means of cor-
recting all attempts at linguistic sovereignty, conceptual
imperialism, and the
espousal of the view that philosophizing is alien to the black
imagination/
sensibility. This is simply a way of saying-and DuBois said it in
many dif-
ferent ways-that black existence and black reflection merit
status, authority,
and consideration in the philosophical arena: that the existence
of black
Americans is a legitimate and necessary means of pursuing
philosophy through
the idiom of American social reality.

1 7
The immediate &aknge facing a black philosophy---an outlook
OR
~~~~~ existence that accents what it means to be black, that
discloses all
attempts to subordinate black existence and that lays bare the
rights and ob-
~~~~~~~~~ of Americans-is for it to serve as a means of
liberation and enlight-
~~~e~t to the economically dispossessed, politically exploited,
and racially
pies of the world. Such a view, in the final analysis, is neither
hial, for in DuBois’ terms, it will serve as an appropriate means
e “surrounding world of American civilization.“*Y And it may
case that a black social philosophy, spawned in the American
intellec-
stress mutual interdependence and individual collective un-
b a s i s o f a w o r k a b l e s o c i a l c0ntract.M
N o t e s
iafa RQ+GC, H~CY Provincialism, and Other American
Problems (New
YO&: the ~ac~iK~a~ Company, 19 I I); The Hope ofthe
Great Community (New
dark; TAR ~~~~iIIan Company, 1916); and The ktters ofJknh
Royce (ed. by
ctnre titled “DuBois’ Philosophy of History,”

~~~~~~~~~~~t~r~~~~ writing, compare his Souls of Black
Folk with Santayana’s
&WM in ~%dety or his Block Reconstruction with Royce’s
The Hope of the Great
~~~~~~~~r~ He wwc five novels and many poems of the
social protest genre.
r~in~toa. Main Clurrenrs in American Thought. volume 3
(New York:
5Cc and world, hc., 1958), pp. 189-203.
~~~~~K. At this lime a decay of the older theological forces,
which dom-
da, was evident, making way foi the emergence of an urban
in many instances, begin to champion proletarian hopes.
~~~~~iu Negro (1899). See his famous “Atlanta Studies”
ht-$ in ~~X~~~n m o n o g r a p h s , a n d e s p e c i a l l y
h i s Black &con-
18. Santayana, pp. 80-81 and 76.
19. See note 9 above. Also, Souls ofBlack Folk.
2 0 . R o y c e , T h e H o p e o f t h e G r e a t C o m m u n
i t y , p p . 4 9 , 5 2 .
21. DuBois, “A Philosophy for 1913”, published in The Crisis,
January, 1913.
22. The Horizon (Vol. I, No. 2, February, 1907), p. 7 and 8.
23. The Crisis (Vol. XI, No. 3, March 1933), p. 56.
24. Blacks, he once argued, “Theoretically . . are part of the
world proletariat in
the sense that (they) . . are mainly an exploited class of cheap
laborers; but

practically (they) . . are not a part of the white proletariat and
are not recog-
nized by that proletariat to any great extent.” (The Crisis,
August, 1921,
pp. 151-152).
25. Herbert Aptheker (ed.), The Correspondence of W. E. B. Du
Bois (University of
Massachusetts Press, 1976), vol. II, pp. 92 and 76-103.
26. Logan, op.cit., p. 42-see note 7 above.
27. S. Redding, op.cit., p. ix-see note 17 above; also, Robert
C. Williams “Moral
Suasion and Militant Aggression in the Theological
Perspectives of Black Reli-
g i o n ” , T h e J o u r n a l o f R e l i g i o u s T h o u g h t ,
V o l . X X X , N o . 2 , F a l l - W i n t e r , 1 9 7 3 - 7 4 ,
p p . 3 2 - 3 4 .
28. Souls of Black Folk, chapter I.
29. See note 8 above.
30. These two concepts could be enlarged upon by contrasting
them with the notion
of distributive justice (John Rawls, A Theory ofJustice) and the
theory of enti-
t l e m e n t ( R o b e r t N o z i c k , A n a r c h y , S t a t e .
a n d U t o p i a ) .
Note on the Author
Robert C. Williams is Associate Professor of Philosophy,
Vanderbilt University.
He teaches in the area of the philosophy of religion and
American and African phi-

losophy. He is a former chairman of the Committee on Blacks in
Philosophy, American
Philosophical Association. His works have been published in
theological and philo-
sophical journals.
1 9

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