Philosophers on Race (eBook)

Julie K. Ward is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University, Chicago. She has published papers both in ancient philosophy and in feminism, and edited the anthology Feminism and Ancient Philosophy (1996), to which she contributed a chapter on Aristotle's theory of friendship. Tommy L. Lott is Professor of Philosophy at San Jose State University. He is author of The Invention of Race (Blackwell 1999), editor of Subjugation and Bondage: Critical Essays on Slavery and Social Philosophy (1998), and co-editor, with Robert Bernasconi, of The Idea of Race (2000).

Contributors.

Acknowledgments.

Introduction.

1. Distinction Without a Difference? Race and Genos in Plato
(Rachana Kamtekar).

2. Ethnos in the Politics: Aristole and Race (Julie K.
Ward).

3. Medieval Muslim Philosophers on Race (Paul-A. Hardy).

4. Patriarchy and Slavery in Hobbes's Political Philosophy
(Tommy L. Lott).

5. "An Inconsistency not to be Excused": On Locke and Racism
(William Uzgalis).

6. Locke and the Dispossession of the American Indian (Kathy
Squadrito).

7. Between Primates and Primitives: Natural Man as the Missing
Link in Rousseau's Second Discourse (Francis Moran III).

8. Kant as an Unfamiliar Source of Racism (Robert
Bernasconi).

9. "The Great Play and Fight of Forces": Nietzsche on Race
(Daniel W. Conway).

10. Liberalism's Limits: Carlyle and Mill on "The Negro
Question" (David Theo Goldberg).

11. Heidegger and the Jewish Question: Metaphysical Racism in
Silence and Word (Berel Lang).

12. Sartre on American Racism (Julien Murphy).

13. Sartrean Bad Faith and Antiblack Racism (Lewis R.
Gordon).

14. Beavoir and the Problem of Racism (Margaret A. Simons).

15. Dewey's Philosophical Approach to Racial Prejudice
(Gregory Fernando Pappas).

Index.

"Critical race theory in philosophy has until now lagged behind the
comparable feminist revisionist project on gender. This landmark
collection of essays, ranging in scope from Plato to Dewey,
represents a dramatic step forward in theoretically engaging the
role of race in the work of central figures of the canon. After
reading this text, no one will be able to claim in good faith that
race is irrelevant to Western philosophy." Charles W. Mills,
University of Illinois at Chicago

"This collection makes a splendid contribution to our
understanding of the history of thinking on race and racism in the
history of philosophy. It goes far to remedy what now appear as the
thundering silences about racial and anti-racist thinking
characteristic of standard histories of philosophy, and to counter
prevalent simplistic reactions and generalizations on all sides of
the issues." Sandra Harding, University of California, Los
Angeles

"Skeptical scrutiny of the many ways in which Western philosophy
has been enmeshed with the practices of slavery, dispossession of
indigenous peoples, and anti-Semitism is, with the publication of
Philosophers on Race, reaching its maturity. It is bringing
into focus the inadequacy of our philosophical tradition's efforts
to achieve self-consciousness about its own racism and about the
deep meaning of being anti-racist. This book sets the terms for
serious discussion of racism in the future." Anatole Anton, San
Francisco State University

"In this distinguished collection, noted authorities explain how
the idea of race informed the philosophies of Aristotle, Hobbes,
Locke, Rousseau, Kant, Mill, Sartre, and others. It deepens our
understanding not only of race, but also of Western philosophy."
Bernard Boxill, University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill

"This book would work well as a supplementary text in various
philosophical courses. Indeed, it could be the major text in a
course that examines issues of race and racism in Western
philosophy... This is a provocative and very well written book."
Ethics, April 2003

"This book offers a highly sophisticated,
well-thought-out, and balanced treatment of a very delicate but
much downplayed subject, namely, the role and significance of the
views of celebrated Western philosophical forebears in shaping the
discourse on race, racism, and oppression. As such, it provides a
variety of very powerful critical lenses through which to
re-examine the epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical claims of
those philosophical icons whose views on race are interrogated."
Clarence Shole Johnson, Middle Tennessee State
University