1 What is philosophy of race?

Race is a way of categorising people that has had, and continues to have, an enormous impact on people’s lives. Historically, what race someone was could determine what rights they had, where they could go to school, what job they could have, or what businesses or services they could use. Today, racial inequalities remain prevalent in many societies, including racial disparities in education, income, wealth, employment, incarceration and health outcomes.

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A row of figures in different shades.

Different academic disciplines ask different sorts of questions about race. For example, historians of race may be interested in understanding the development of the idea of race or of race relations over time, social scientists may be interested in gathering empirical data about how racial inequalities are produced and persist, and psychologists may be interested in how racial bias manifests psychologically.

So what questions do philosophers ask about race? Some philosophers of race investigate ethical questions (for example, ‘should we keep talking about race?’ or ‘are racial fetishes wrong?’). Others investigate questions of political philosophy (for example, ‘how do racial hierarchies affect our conception of the relationship between the individual and the state?’). Philosophers of race are also interested in metaphysical questions. Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy concerned with the basic structure and reality of the world, and metaphysical questions come up across philosophy. Philosophers studying the metaphysics of race are interested in understanding the fundamental nature of race.

In this course, you will focus on two questions:

1. What is race?
2. What is racism?

These are important questions. The better you understand what race is, the better placed you are to tackle racism. Is it OK to talk about race and use racial categories in everyday life? What about in policymaking, science or medicine? And figuring out what racism is can help us to identify it, and work out what sorts of things we should be trying to get rid of or remedy.

In this course you’ll explore some different answers to these questions. Philosophers can (and often do) disagree, but this doesn’t mean that philosophy is just a matter of opinion. Philosophy offers a rigorous way of thinking about difficult questions. Philosophers try to construct rational arguments for their views, or rational arguments against their opponents’ positions. This back-and-forth might not end up in universal agreement but, even so, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of different positions can deepen our understanding of a particular issue, and can lead people to clarify and assess their own beliefs about an issue. By questioning and rigorously testing our beliefs, we can identify our prejudices or unreflective assumptions, and develop considered views that we can defend from criticism.