24.892: Special Graduate Topics in Philosophy

Spring 2004

Classification, Natural Kinds and Conceptual Change:

Race as a Case Study

 

Description:

Race is a hotly contested issue in contemporary politics and medicine: should race be taken into account in our social and health policy or not? Should we (both in our personal relationships and in governmental institutions) be race blind? Is race real or not? This political controversy has generated corresponding debate within the academy, particularly in political philosophy, bioethics, the history and philosophy of science, and more recently metaphysics and epistemology. For example, drawing on his expertise in the philosophy of language, Anthony Appiah has argued that there is no such thing as race: if we analyze the concept of race, i.e., the sense of the term 'race', we'll find that nothing in the world fulfills the conditions of the analysis. Alternatively, if we suppose that 'race' is a natural kind term that directly refers, we'll find there is no corresponding natural kind.

 

This course will consider the claim that there is no such thing as race, with a particular emphasis on the question whether races should be thought of as natural kinds: is our concept of race a natural kind concept? Is the term 'race' a natural kind term? If so, is Appiah right to conclude that there are no races? How should one go about "analyzing" the concept of race?

 

The readings for the course will be drawn from an interdisciplinary literature, including work in philosophy, genetics, biology, sociology, and history. We will consider whether there are any reasons (epidemiological, sociological, historical) to categorize humans into racial groups, and whether, e.g., health disparities reflect genetic predispositions. Throughout the course we will be guided by questions such as: What are natural kinds, and how do we determine whether a term in our vocabulary picks out a natural kind or not? Are there features that distinguish natural kind terms as opposed to other general terms? In cases where a term is used differently over time and/or from context to context, what determines whether it expresses the same concept/refers to the same kind in the different occurrences? To what extent can a concept change and remain the same concept?

 

Instructors:

Sally Haslanger, Professor of Philosophy, MIT

Office: E39-349, Phone: 617-253-4458

Email: shaslang@mit.edu

Office hours: F 11:30-1 and by appointment

Koffi Maglo, MLK Visiting Professor of Philosophy, MIT

Office: E39-350 , Phone: 617-253-4147

Email: kmaglo@mit.edu

Office hours: by appointment

Meeting Time/Place

Mondays 10:30-1:30, MIT Building 36-112.

First class: February 9, 2004

In preparation for the first class, please read, Anthony Appiah, "Race, Culture, Identity: Misunderstood Conections, Part I" in K. A. Appiah and A. Gutmann, Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), pp. 30-74. A copy of this will be available in "the filecabinet" on the third floor of E39 for MIT philosophy graduate students to copy. Others who need a copy should contact shaslang@mit.edu.

Texts:

Readings will be available for photocopying in the philosophy department at MIT. Many are also available (to MIT affiliates) online through VERA:

http://river.mit.edu/mitlibweb/FMPro?-db=RS_Items.fp5&-Lay=web&-format=ro_search.htm&-findany

Requirements:

Seminar presentation: a summary and critical assessment of one assigned reading, presented to the seminar; written version to be handed in at the same class.

Term paper (20-25 pages)

 

SCHEDULE:

(Note: readings are tentative and changes may be made to the assigned readings in the seminar prior to which they will be discussed.)

 

Monday, 2/9: Introduction

Reading:

Anthony Appiah, "Race, Culture, Identity: Misunderstood Conections, Part I" in K. A. Appiah and A. Gutmann, Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), pp. 30-74.

 

Tuesday, 2/17: Natural Kind Terms (Issues in philosophy of language)

How is the meaning of natural kind terms determined? Is there a difference between how natural kind terms have meaning and how other terms have meaning? Does it make sense to think of some specific set of terms as Ònatural kind" terms?

Reading:

Putnam, Hilary. 1973. "Meaning and Reference," Journal of Philosophy 53:19 (Nov. 8): 699-711.

Reid, Jasper. 2002. "Natural Kind Essentialism." Australasian-Journal-of-Philosophy 80(1): 62-74.

Soames, Scott. Beyond Rigidity, Ch. 9-11 (pp. 241-311).

Recommended background:

Swartz, Stephen. 1977. Introduction to Naming, Necessity, and Natural Kinds. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press). Pp. 1-41.

Monday, 2/24: Classification and Natural Kinds (Issues in metaphysics and epistemology)

What (if anything) are natural kinds? What is the relationship between a commitment to natural kinds and a commitment to essentialism? Is it possible to have knowledge of natural kinds? What is meant by Ònatural" in "natural kind"?

Reading:

Dupré, John. 1981. "Natural Kinds and Biological Taxa." Philosophical Review 90:1 (January): 66-90. available PDF at:

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0031-8108%28198101%2990%3A1%3C66%3ANKABT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-A

Hacking, Ian. 1986. "Making Up People." In Reconstructing Individualism: Autonomy, Individuality, and the Self in Western Thought, edited by T. C. Heller, M. Sosna and D. E. Wellbery. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Anderson, Elizabeth. 1995. "Knowledge, Human Interests, and Objectivity in Feminist Epistemology." Philosophical Topics 23 (2):27-58.

Recommended background:

Armstrong, David. 1989. Universals: An Opinionated Introduction. (Boulder, CO: Westview Press), Ch. 1, ÒThe Problem".

Copi, Irving. 1954. "Essence and Accident."Journal of Philosophy 51 (November 11): 706-719. available PDF at:

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-362X%2819541111%2951%3A23%3C706%3AEAA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-L

Bromberger, Sylvain. 1997. "Natural Kinds and Questions." Pozna«n Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities, 51: 149-63.

 

Monday, 3/1: Historical background on the notion of race

In attempting to understand what race is, how should we proceed? Are we attempting to analyze "our" concept? What is "our" concept of race? Has there been significant variation over time in the ordinary concept of race? Is there a stable core to the concept, and if so what should we make of that stability?

Reading:

Stocking, George W., Jr. 1994. The Turn-of-the-Century Concept of Race. Modernism/Modernity 1 (1):4-16.

Herzog, Donald. 1998. Poisoning the Minds of the Lower Orders. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press). Pp. 288-99, 303-314.

Fields, Barbara. 1982. Ideology and Race in American History. In Region, Race and Reconstruction: Essays in Honor of C. Vann Woodward, edited by J. M. Kousser and J. M. McPherson. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hardimon, Michael O. 2003. "The Ordinary Concept of Race." Journal of Philosophy 100:9 (September): 437-55.

 

Monday, 3/8: Biology, Philosophy and Race: The Early Debate

What are the origins of the scientific concept of race? What is the relationship between the concept of race and the concept of species? Does the notion of race carry a commitment to racial essences? Or is race a convenient classificatory device?

Reading:

Bernier, Francois. "New Division of the Earth" in R. Bernasconi and T. L. Lott, The Idea of Race. (Indinapolis/Cambridge, Hackett Publishing Company, 2000), pp.1-4.

Kant Immanuel. "Of the Different Human Races" in R. Bernasconi and T. L. Lott, The Idea of Race. (Indinapolis/Cambridge, Hackett Publishing Company, 2000), pp.8-26.

Herder, Johan Gottfried (von). "Ideas on the Philosophy of the History of Humankind" in The Idea of Race. (Indinapolis/Cambridge, Hackett Publishing Company, 2000), pp.23-26.

Blumenbach, F. Joahann, "On The Natural Variety of Mankind," in R. Bernasconi and T. L. Lott, The Idea of Race. (Indinapolis/Cambridge, Hackett Publishing Company, 2000), pp.27-37.

Darwin, Charles. "On the Races Man," excerpt from Ch. Darwin The Descent of Man in R. Bernasconi and T. L. Lott, The Idea of Race. (Indinapolis/Cambridge, Hackett Publishing Company, 2000), pp.54-78.

Boas Franz "Instability of Human Types" in R. Bernasconi and T. L. Lott, The Idea of Race. (Indinapolis/Cambridge, Hackett Publishing Company, 2000), pp.84-8.

 

Recommended:

Graves Jr, Joseph. The EmperorÕs New Clothes: Biological Theories of Race at the Millenium, New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press

 

Monday, 3/15: Race in Recent Philosophy of Science

What is the relationship between the ordinary concept of race and the scientific notion of race?

Can race be both a biological reality and a social construction?

Reading:

Kitcher, Philip. "Race, Ethnicity, Biology, Culture" in L. Harris Racism, (New York, Humanity Books 1999), pp.87-117.

Andreason, Robin. "Race: Biological Reality or Social Construct?" Philosophy of Science 67 supplementary volume 2000, pp. S653-66. Available PDF at:

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0031-8248%28200009%2967%3CS653%3ARBROSC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8

Glasgow, Joshua. "On the New Biology of Race" The Journal of philosophy100, September 2003, pp. 456-74.

Zack, Naomi. Philosophy of Science and Race (London, Routledge 2002), Chaps. 4, 5, 6.

 

Monday, 3/22: Spring Break, no class

 

Monday, 3/29: The DNA Revolution and Race

Do human populations structure into discrete units? Is race a viable biological concept? Do genetic classifications correspond to social taxa?

Reading:

Keita, Shomarka & Kittles, Rick. "The Persistence of Racial Thinking and the Myth of Racial Divergence" American Anthropologist 99:3, September 1997, pp. 534-44

King, Mary-Claire & Motulsky, Arno. "Mapping Human History" www.sciencemag.org, Science Magazine 298, December 20, 2002, pp. 2342-3.

Rosenberg Noah et al. "Genetic Structure of Human Populations" www.sciencemag.org, Science Magazine 298, December 20, 2002, pp. 2381-4.

Foster, Morris & Sharp, Richard. "Race, Ethnicity, and Genomics: Social Classifications as Proxies of Biological Heterogeneity" www.genome.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gr.99202, Genome Research 12:6, June 2002, pp. 844-50.

Sankar, Pamela & Cho, Mildred. "Toward a New Vocabulary of Human Genetic Variation" www.sciencemag.org, Science Magazine 298 November 202, pp. 1337-8.

 

Monday, 4/5: Genomics, Medicine and Race

Is there any epidemiological ground to classify human beings into racial groups? Are there any risks to use race as a scientific variable in medicine and pharmaco-genomics?

Reading:

Nature genetics 29:3 2001 "Editorial", pp.239-40.

Wilson James et al. "Population Genetics Structure of Variable Drug Response" Nature Genetics 29:3 November 2001, pp.265-268.

Risch N. et al. "Categorization of Humans in Biomedical Research: Genes, Race and Disease" www.genomebiology.com/2002/3/7/comment/2007.1, Genome Biology 3:7.

Note: MIT affiliates can access full text of the New England Journal of Medicine through Vera:

http://river.mit.edu/mitlibweb/FMPro?-db=RS_Items.fp5&-Lay=web&-format=ro_search.htm&-findany

Phimister, Elizabeth "Medicine and the Racial Divide" New England Journal of Medicine 348:12, March 20, 2003, pp. 1081-2..

Cooper S. Richard et al. "Race and Genomics", New England Journal of Medicine 348:12, March 20, 2003, pp. 1166-70

Burchard E. Gonzalez et al. "The Importance of Race and Ethnic and Ethnic Background in Biomedical Research and Clinical Practice" New England Journal of Medicine 348:12, March 20, 2003, pp. 11170-5.

Bamhad J. Michael & Olson E. Steve. "Does Race Exist?" Scientific American, www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000E8158-3DAD-1FA8-BBAA83414B7F0000&pageNumber=1

 

Monday, 4/12: Genomics, Race and Health Policy

Do health disparities correlate with human genetic variation? Or are they due to unequal distribution of resources? Could the use of racial categories in biomedical research lead to racial discrimination?

Reading:

Stevens Jacqueline "Racial Meanings and Scientific Methods: Changing Policies for NIH-Sponsored Publications Reporting Human Variation" Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 28:6, December 2003, pp. 1033Ñ98.

Lee S-J Sandra et al. "The meanings of "Race" in the New genomics: Implications for health Disparities Research" Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law and Ethics 1:33-75

 

Monday, 4/19: PatriotÕs Day Holiday, no class

 

Monday, 4/26: Racial "Projects"

Setting aside the question whether there are genetically defined groups that might count as races, there are certainly socio-politically defined groups that are considered races. Instead of attempting to analyze race in biological terms, should we instead opt for a constructionist account of race that takes races to be social kinds?

Reading:

Root, Michael. 2000. "How We Divide The World." Philosophy of Science , Vol. 67, Supplement. Proceedings of the 1998 Biennial Meetings of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part II: Symposia Papers. (Sep., 2000), pp. S628-S639.Available PDF at:

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0031-8248%28200009%2967%3CS628%3AHWDTW%3E2.0.CO%3B2-6

Haslanger, Sally. 2000. Gender and Race: (What) Are They? (What) Do We Want Them To Be? Nous 34 (1):31-55.

Ferber, Abby L. 1995. "Exploring the Social Construction of Race: Sociology and the Study of Interracial Relationships." In American Mixed Race, ed., N. Zack. (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield), pp155-167.

Recommended:

Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. 1994. "Racial Formation," In M. Omi and H. Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, Ch. 4. New York: Routledge, pp. 53-76.

 

Monday, 5/3: Race, Ethnicity, and Panethnicity

What is the relationship between race and ethnicity? Is there a meaningful role for the notion of race in a future that recognizes and celebrates difference?

Reading:

Linda Alcoff, 2000. "Is Latino/a Identity a Racial Identity?" in Hispanics and Latinos in the United States: Ethnicity, Race, and Rights, ed., Jorge J. E. Gracia and Pablo De Grieff. (New York: Routledge), pp. 23-44.

Le Esperitu, Yen. 1993. Asian American Panethnicity: Bridging Institutions and Identities, (Philadelphia: Temple University Press), Ch. 1 "Ethnicity and Panethnicity" pp. 1-18.

Appiah, K. A. 1996. "Race, Culture, Identity: Misunderstood Conections, Part II" in K. A. Appiah and A. Gutmann, Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), pp. 74-105.

Goldberg, David T. 1995. "Made in the USA: Racial Mixing 'n Matching." In American Mixed Race, ed., N. Zack. (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield), pp. 237-255,

 

Monday, 5/10: Elminativism, Conservatism, or Revisionism?

Reading: TBA

 

Draft of term paper due: 5/22 (tentative, depends on date of the "end of term meeting")

 

Final version of term paper due: June 1, 2004