Caribbean Philosophy

A brief overview to some of the main Caribbean philosophers

Afro-Caribbean philosophical consist within the wider framework of African, European, and Afro-American philosophical traditions. There were different languages in the history of Caribbean philosophy; English, French and Spanish. The following paper tries to give a Brief summary of the most influential authors.

Eric Eustace Williams (1911 – 1981) was prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago from 1961 until his death. Prior to entering politics, he was professor of political and social science at Howard University. He was educated at Queen's Royal College in Port of Spain, where he excelled at academics and football. He won an island scholarship in 1932 which allowed him to attend Oxford University where he received his doctorate in 1938. Williams was in part inspired by C.L.R. James and his doctoral thesis, owed much to the influence of James's The Black Jacobins (1938)

One of the most important works of Williams is the book “Capitalism and slavery” where he explains how the triangular trade between Britain, British America, and Africa was fundamental in the structure of British economy in the eighteenth century. It assisted in the accumulation of capital for the industrial revolution. Williams's study of the role of slavery in financing the Industrial Revolution refuted traditional ideas of economic and moral progress and firmly established the centrality of the African slave trade in European economic development. He also showed that mature industrial capitalism in turn helped destroy the slave system. According to him, ' the capitalists first encouraged West Indian slavery, and then helped to destroy it’. He is not content with this. As an economic determinist he relates the abolition of slavery to the economic change he has noted. He holds, that the importance of the humanitarians ' has been seriously misunderstood and grossly exaggerated by men who have sacrificed scholarship to sentimentality”