Race

Although historians and literary theorists have long participated in discussions about race, it is only recently that philosophers have returned to the topic. The main focus of their attention has been the question of what one means by race now that its biological basis has been discredited, and under what conditions a non–essentialist concept of race can be sustained. This volume provides an introduction to the concept of race within philosophy. It gives an overview of the most important contributions by continental philosophers to the understanding of race – focusing on Kant, Du Bois, Senghor, and Sartre – as well as presenting a general review of recent philosophical discussions. In addition, it moves the debate forward by including new contributions by some of today′s leading theorists.

Acknowledgements. Introduction. Part I: Kant and the Invention of Race. 1. "Who Invented the Concept of Race?". (Robert Bernasconi). 2. "On the use of Teleological Principles in Philosophy". (Immanuel Kant). Part II: Du Bois and the Conservation of Races. 3. "Du Bois′s Anthropological Notion of Race". (Tommy Lott). 4. "The Conservation of Races". (W.E.B. Du Bois). Part III: Nardal and Race Consciousness. 5. "Paulette Nardal, Race Consciousness and Antillean Letters". (T. Denean Sharpley–Whiting). 6. "The Awakening of Race Consciousness". (Paulette Nardal). Part IV: The Negritude Movement. 7. "Black Orpheus". (Jean–Paul Sartre). 8. "Negritude and Modernity or Negritude as a Humanism for the Twentieth Century". (Leopold Senghor). Part V: Fanon and the Phenomenology of Race. 9. "Fanon, Merleau–Ponty and the Difference of Phenomenology". (Jeremy Weate) 10. "The Lived Experience of the Black". (Frantz Fanon). Part VI: Dumont and the Structuralist Analysis of Race. 11. "Is there a Structuralist Analysis of Racism?". (Kamala Visweswaran). 12. "Caste, Racism and Stratification". (Louis Dumont). Part VII: The Politics of Race. 13. "Race, Multiculturalism and Democracy". (Robert Gooding–Williams). 14. "Conversational Break". (Judith Butler). Part VIII: Phenomenology and Racial Embodiment. 15."Toward a Phenomenology of Racial Embodiment". (Linda Alcoff). 16. "The Invisibility of Racial Minorities in the Public Realm of Appearances". (Robert Bernasconi). Index.

Robert Bernasconi is Lillian and Morrie Moss Professor of Philosophy at the University of Memphis. He has published numerous articles and collections including The Question of Language in Heidegger′s History of Being (1985), and Heidegger in Question (1993).

" Race offers a diverse and profound examination of the idea of race in the continental tradition, from Kant to contemporary theorists. Perspectives include phenomenology, feminism, multiculturalism, existentialism, and Africana Studies. A valuable research tool for scholarship in race and continental philosophy." Naomi Zack, University at Albany, SUNY "This collection provides a valuable new perspective on one of the most vexing issues of the modern era. Bernasconi is to be commended." Albert Mosley, Smith College "This excellent and wide–ranging anthology is certain to enrich and enliven contemporary philosophical discussion of the concept of race." Michele Moody–Adams, Cornell University