Philosophy 14

“[N]either did intelligence save anybody, for if equality among men is proclaimed in the name of intelligence and philosophy, it is also true that these concepts have been used to justify the extermination of man.”

Quote: Frantz Fanon (1967): Black Skin, White Masks (1952), translated from the French by Richard Philcox, New York: Pluto Press, p. 25. Picture: By Wikimedia, Creative Commons

Frantz Fanon (1925-1961) was born in Martinique. He studied medicine and philosophy in Lyon and was one of the most important pioneers of anti- and post-colonial theory.

The quote comes from Fanon's famous 1952 essay "Black Skin, White Masks", in which he deals with the psychological effects of colonial violence and thus turns away from the Négritude movement. There are several passages in the book that criticize the European Enlightenment. In this quote, he makes it clear that it is not a question of intelligence whether one should be granted equal rights; on the contrary, philosophers legitimized the extermination of the colonized. Despite this criticism of hypocracy of philosophy and its proclamation of equality, Fanon saw the possibility of liberation in universal humanism at this time. He later joined the anti-colonial struggle in Algeria.

*Frantz Fanon (1967): The Wretched of the Earth. Grove Press: New York, especially p. 78. *Peter Hudis (26.12.2020) The Revolutionary Humanism of Frantz Fanon, Brooklyn: Jacobin. *John Drabinski (2019): "Frantz Fanon", in: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2019 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).

1952