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24 R. T. Ames

had theories of race, nation, genesis of human difference, and justifications for all sorts of
slavery, conquest, and domination. 6
And the avalanche of posts responding to Garfield and Van Norden keep coming
in, with feminist philosophy too having its say, and requiring that our contem-
porary departments acknowledge one more marginalization if not exclusion by
calling themselves “Departments of Male, White European and White American
Philosophy.” 7
In just such a world then and still now, I sought out a career at the Uni-
versity of Hawai’i with its pluralistic and inclusive curriculum being a sustained
challenge to the ethnocentric self-understanding of the professional discipline
of philosophy, a discipline that in large measure still perpetuates the
assumption that philosophy and philosophers too, are properly male, white,
and Euro-American. With my philosophical bearings having been set during my
Chinese Hong Kong sojourn so long ago, what I learned then from philosopher
Lao Sze-Kwang, and what I myself have aspired to be, is just a philosopher—
enough said. And perhaps like my mentor Lao, given our times and the
continuing self-understanding of professional philosophy, I too must pay the
price of being largely ignored.

Acknowledgment: I have benefitted from the critical comments of two peer
reviewers and have made several important revisions to this article based on their
suggestions.

References

Cheng, C. Y. (2003). 心性与天道 ：劳思光先生对儒学的诠释 [Nature of mind and the way of
heaven: On professor Lao Sze-Kwang’s interpretation of confucianism]. In K. Y. Lau &
C. F. Cheung (Eds.), Infinite horizons: Professor Lao Sze-Kwang as scholar and thinker (p. 58).
The Chinese University Press.
Hall, D. L., & Ames, R. T. (1995). Anticipating China: Thinking through the narratives of Chinese and
Western culture. State University of New York Press.
Lao, S. K. (2003). 对论集的回应 [A response to the anthology]. In K. Y. Lau & C. F. Cheung (Eds.),
Infinite horizons: Professor Lao Sze-Kwang as scholar and thinker. The Chinese University
Press.
Lau, K. Y. (2003). 劳思光先生与中国式的批评精神 [Lao Sze-Kwang and his critical spirit with
Chinese characteristics ]. In K. Y. Lau & C. F. Cheung (Eds.), Infinite horizons: Professor Lao
Sze-Kwang as scholar and thinker (p. 28). The Chinese University Press.

6 http://jdrabinski.com/2016/05/11/diversity-neutrality-philosophy/.
7 For links to a variety of responses, see http://pages.vassar.edu/epistemologicallywise/2016/05/
16/the-debate-over-the-garfield-van-norden-essay-in-the-stone/.