Danny Underwood

This essay introduces the special issue Contemporary Issues in Black Philosophy: Pluralism in Methodological Approaches and advances a metaphilosophical argument about method in Black philosophy. We distinguish the question of what makes philosophy Black from the question of what counts as philosophy, and argue that conflating these questions produces a misleading methodological monism. Attention to the difference between substance and method shows that methodological choice must be guided by the problems under investigation. We defend a disciplined pluralism according to which methods are justified by problem-fit rather than by allegiance to a single tradition. The essays in this collection are a demonstration, not a discussion, of methodological pluralism and its benefits to philosophy.

This paper examines the evolving moral debt owed to descendants of US slavery, arguing that the injustice compounds over generations. It demonstrates how the inflation of compensation for inherited claims, recurring acts of oppression, and a hybrid counterfactual argument make the case that reparations grow more urgent with time. While addressing counterarguments such as the moral statutes of limitations argument and the apparent conflict between corrective and distributive justice, the paper argues that historical wrongs generate legitimate and increasingly urgent claims for rectification until those claims are satisfied. This suggests a reframing of descendants of US slavery as a moral creditor class owed reparations by their government.