For many decades, race and racism have been common areas of study in departments of sociology, history, political science, English, and anthropology. Much more recently, as the historical concept of race and racial categories have faced significant scientific and political challenges, philosophers have become more interested in these areas. This changing understanding of the ontology of race has invited inquiry from researchers in moral philosophy, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of science, philosophy of language, and aesthetics.

The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Race offers in one comprehensive volume newly written articles on race from the world's leading analytic and continental philosophers. It is, however, accessible to a readership beyond philosophy as well, providing a cohesive reference for a wide student and academic readership. The Companion synthesizes current philosophical understandings of race, providing 37 chapters on the history of philosophy and race as well as how race might be investigated in the usual frameworks of contemporary philosophy. The volume concludes with a section on philosophical approaches to some topics with broad interest outside of philosophy, like colonialism, affirmative action, eugenics, immigration, race and disability, and post-racialism.

By clearly explaining and carefully organizing the leading current philosophical thinking on race, this timely collection will help define the subject and bring renewed understanding of race to students and researchers in the humanities, social science, and sciences.

Paul C. Taylor is Professor of Philosophy and African American Studies at the Pennsylvania State University, where he also serves as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies. He has written three books, including Black is Beautiful: A Philosophy of Black Aesthetics and On Obama, and is one of the founding co-editors of the journal Critical Philosophy of Race.

Linda Martín Alcoff is Professor of Philosophy at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center, and Visiting Research Professor at Australian Catholic University. She was President of the American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division, for 2012-2013. Her books include The Future of Whiteness and Visible Identities: Race, Gender and the Self.

Luvell Anderson is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Memphis. Before coming to Memphis, he was Alain Locke Postdoctoral Fellow at Pennsylvania State University. His research lies principally in philosophy of language, philosophy of race, and aesthetics. He has published articles on the semantics of racial slurs and on racist humor.

Table of Contents

1. Critical Philosophy of Race and Philosophical Historiography





Robert Bernasconi



2. Of Problem Moderns and Excluded Moderns: On the Essential Hybridity of Modernity





Oluìfeìòmi TaìiìwoÌ



3. Kant on Race and Transition





Frank Kirkland



4. Hegel on Race and Development





Frank Kirkland



5. Heidegger's Shadow: Levinas, Arendt, and the Magician from Messkirch





Jonathan Judaken



6. Race-ing the Canon: American Icons, from Thomas Jefferson to Alain Locke





Jacoby Carter



7. At the Intersections: Existentialism, Critical Philosophies of Race, and Feminism





Kathryn Gines



8. Critical Theory: Adorno, Marcuse, and Angela Davis





Arnold Farr



9. Poststructuralism and Race: Giorgio Agamben and Michel Foucault





Ladelle McWhorter




Alternative Traditions



10. Rights, Race, and the Beginnings of Modern Africana Philosophy





Chike Jeffers



11. Africana Thought





Lewis Gordon



12. Theorizing Indigeneity, Gender, and Settler Colonialism





Kyle Whyte and Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner



13. The History of Racial Theories in China





Frank Dikötter



14. Racism in India





Ania Loomba




Metaphysics and Ontology



15. Analytic Metaphysics: Race and Racial Identity





Jorge J. E. Gracia and Susan L. Smith



16. American Experimentalism





Harvey Cormier



17. Race and Phenomenology (or Racializing Phenomenology)





Gail Weiss




Epistemology, Cognition, and Language



18. Epistemic Injustice and Epistemologies of Ignorance





José Medina



19. Implicit Bias and Race





Michael Brownstein



20. The Mark of the Plural: Generic Generalizations and Race





Daniel Wodak and Sarah-Jane Leslie



21. Psychoanalysis and Race





Kelly Oliver




Natural Science and Social Theory



22. Race and Biology





Rasmus Winther



23. Eugenics





Camisha Russell



24. Framing Intersectionality





Elena Ruiz



25. Canonizing the Critical Race Artifice: An Analysis of Philosophy's Gentrification of Critical Race Theory





Tommy Curry




Aesthetics



26. Race-ing Aesthetic Theory





Monique Roelofs



27. Joking About Race and Ethnicity





Stephanie Patridge



28. Anti-Black Racism: The Greatest Art Show on Earth





Janine Jones




Ethics and the Political



29. Racism





Luc Faucher



30. On Race and Solidarity: Reconsiderations





Lucius Outlaw



31. Race, Luck, and the Moral Emotions





Samantha Vice



32. Racism and Coloniality: The Invention of "Human(ity)" and the Three Pillars of the Colonial Matrix of Power (Racism, Sexism And Nature)





Walter Mignolo



33. White Supremacy





Charles Mills




Politics and Policy



34. On Post-Racialism: Or, How Color-Blindness Rebranded Is Still Vicious





Ronald Sundstrom



35. Philosophy of Race and the Ethics of Immigration





Jose Jorge Mendoza



36. Mixed-Race





Jared Sexton



37. Racism, State Violence, and the Homeland