93:2 April 2010 

Race

Advisory Editors: Robin Andreasen, University of Delaware and Ron Mallon, University of Utah

This issue of The Monist will explore race – both the concept and the category – from a philosophical point of view. The focus will be not only on the metaphysical and epistemological issues related to racial classification, but also on the social and psychological aspects of race. What is race? What sort of category is it, ontologically speaking? Is it an empty category? If not, is it a biological kind, a social kind, or perhaps both? How is race conceptualized both scientifically and in everyday discourse? What is the proper relationship between scientific and everyday conceptions of race? What are the biological, social, historical, and political origins of racial thinking? What aspects of human cognition, if any, shape racial thinking? Can a better understanding of race help our efforts to challenge racism and racial injustice? How would race be conceptualized in a just (non-racist) society? Would an ideal society conserve or eliminate racial classification schemes? Of particular interest will be papers that aim to integrate treatments of these questions in the wider discourse of science and philosophy.

Table of Contents:

Sally Haslanger

Language, Politics and “The Folk”: Looking for “The Meaning” of ‘Race’.  

Bernard R. Boxill

“A Man’s a Man for All That”.  

Jorge J.E. Gracia

Racism: Negative and Positive?  

Edouard Machery, Luc Faucher, and Daniel R. Kelly

On the Alleged Inadequacy of Psychological Explanations of Racism.  

Bence Nanay

Three Ways of Resisting Racism.  

Jonathan Michael Kaplan

When Socially Determined Categories Make Biological Realities:  Understanding Black/White Health Disparities in the U.S.  

Lawrence Blum

Racialized Groups: The Sociohistorical Consensus.  

Joshua Glasgow

The End of Historical Constructivism: Circularity, Redundancy, Indeterminacy.

Christoph Fehige and Robert H. Frank

Feeling Our Way to the Common Good: Utilitarianism and the Moral Sentiments