What Is Race?
Four Philosophical Views
Joshua Glasgow author Sally Haslanger author Chike Jeffers author Quayshawn Spencer author
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc
Published:4th Jul '19
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£98.00(9780190610173)
Across public discourse, in the media, politics, many branches of academic inquiry, and ordinary daily interactions, we spend a lot time talking about race: race relations, racial violence, discrimination based on race, racial integration, racial progress. It is fair to say that questions about race have vexed our social life. But for all we speak about race, do we know what race is? Is it a social construct or a biological object? Is it a bankrupt holdover from a time before sophisticated scientific understanding and genetics, or can it still hold up in biological, genetic, and other types of research? Most fundamentally, is race real? In this book, four prominent philosophers and race theorists debate how best to answer these difficult questions, applying philosophical tools and the principles of social justice to cutting-edge findings from the biological and social sciences. Each presents a distinct view of race: Sally Haslanger argues that race is a socio-political reality. Chike Jeffers maintains that race is not only political but also, importantly, cultural. Quayshawn Spencer pursues the idea that race is biologically real. And Joshua Glasgow argues that either race is not real, or if it is, it must be real in a way that is neither social nor biological. Each offers an argument for their own view and then replies to the others. Woven together, the result is a lively debate that opens up numerous ways of understanding race. Above all, it is call for sophisticated and principled discussion of something that significantly permeates our lives.
...a rich and satisfying book that presents four key views on the metaphysics of race in critical conversation with one another. * Katharine Jenkins, Metascience *
Philosophy of race has experienced a vibrant period of development over the last three decades, and the fruits of this development, as well as its continuation, are fully on display in this book of essays and responses from four of the leading figures in the field...the book exemplifies the use of philosophical methods and theories to advance discussion about matters of considerable complexity and import....the essays are, from the beginning, developed not only with an eye to articulating each author's preferred theory, but in conversation with one another as well as with the larger body of recent work in philosophy of race. Combine that with each author's clear and careful exposition of the issues, and there is simply no better book through which to become familiar with the state-of-the-art regarding the metaphysics of race. It will be useful as an introduction, as well as required reading for philosophers working in this area * Australasian Journal of Philosophy *
The book makes clear that, in addition to being real, the metaphysical debate over race (understood as a complex dispute that includes a semantic and normative dimension) is alive and well. It brings together, in one convenient volume, the metaphysical accounts of race of four prominent philosophers of race at the cutting edge of the field...[the ] book provides a wonderful snapshot of the current state of the metaphysics of race. It will be of interest to philosophers unfamiliar with that debate who would like to know what is going on in the field. It will also be of interest to philosophers familiar with the work of Glasgow, Haslanger, Jeffers, and Spencer who would like to see the latest presentations of their views. This volume could serve as the centerpiece of graduate seminars on race or as a text in upper-level undergraduate philosophy classes. It is a book well worth having. * Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *
ISBN: 9780190610180
Dimensions: 231mm x 155mm x 20mm
Weight: 522g
296 pages