Race, Ethnicity, and Philosophy
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Description
This chapter examines the role of metaphysics in the understanding of race and ethnicity and disputes Jorge J. E. Gracia's conceptions of race and ethnicity. It first considers Gracia's contribution to the philosophy of race and ethnicity before discussing his Familial-Historical View and Common-Bundle View of ethnicity and race, respectively. It critiques both views, claiming that they would require the addition of certain conditions for them to do what Gracia wants them to do; when those conditions are added, race and ethnicity cease to be what Gracia first thought they were. The two most important issues in question are the need to add the notion of an ancestral people to conditions of both ethnicity and race, and the fact that Gracia's formulation about race does not account for the difference between “Aborigines” and “Negroes.” The chapter argues that the notion of an ancestral people would help in the resolution of these two issues, although it would collapse the notions of race and ethnicity, contrary to Gracia's attempts to keep them separate.
Source Publication
Debating Race, Ethnicity, and Latino Identity: Jorge J. E. Gracia and His Critics
Source Editors/Authors
Iván Jaksić
Publication Date
2015
Recommended Citation
Appiah, Kwame Anthony, "Race, Ethnicity, and Philosophy" (2015). Faculty Chapters. 109.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/109
