Course Director: Esteve Morera

Office:  S419 Ross

Email: morera@yorku.ca

Office hours: Wednesday 9:30 -10:45

or by appointment.

"If interrogating the obvious is one of philosophy's core activities, race might be a quintessentially philosophical subject."

Taylor, Paul C. Race. A Philosophical Introduction. Cambridge: Polity Press,       2022.

This course is an examination of some of the answers contemporary philosophers have given to some normative, conceptual and metaphysical questions concerning race, racism and related concepts. Questions include: What kind of thing are we purporting to talk about when we talk about race? Is race real? For example, is race biologically real? If not, might it nonetheless be real in some other sense? If race is not real in any sense – or perhaps even if it is – should we eliminate racial discourse as well as the practices that depend on racial categories? What, exactly, is racism? And what makes it wrong? Is racial discrimination always wrong? What makes racial discrimination wrong, when it is wrong? What is racial injustice? How should a society respond to a history of past racial injustice? Do prominent theories of justice have the theoretical resources to address issues of racial injustice? Is it morally permissible to feel a special sense of solidarity with other members of one’s racial group?

Learning is a practice.  The best way to learn is to engage with the subject matter you are studying and ask questions.  A good class is one in which students participate, are active in making comments, interpreting the readings, asking questions; in short, a good class is one in which students take control of their learning agenda.

The main purpose of our meetings will be to make sure that you achieve your academic goals.  Learning is an activity that is best accomplished by actively participating in discussion, raising questions, and suggesting ways of understanding a text or solving a problem.  Instructors should facilitate this activity.  Current research demonstrates the importance of active learning, but this is indeed a very old idea, one that the great thinkers of the past already understood well.

Textbook:

Taylor, Paul C. Race. A Philosophical Introduction. Cambridge: Polity Press,       2022.

Available at the York Bookstore

Aticles: Links provided:

Link 1

Eze, "Hume, Race, and Human Nature.” Journal of the History of Ideas. Vol. 61, No. 4 (October 2000): 691- 698

Link 2

Kleingeld, "Kant's Second Thoughts on Race." The Philosophical Quarterly. Vol. 57, No. 229 (October 2007): 573-592

Link 3

Taiwo, Olufemi. "Exorcising Hegel’s Ghost: African’s Challenge to Philosophy."

African Studies Quarterly. Volume 1, Issue 4, (1998): 3-26.

Link 4

Mills, Charles W. "The Red and the Black." Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association. Vol. 90 (November 2016): 90-113.

Link 5

Bernasconi, Robert. Critical Philosophy of Race.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023.

1. 21-30 only

Link 6

Hardimon, Michael O. "The Ordinary Concept of Race"

The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 100, No. 9 (September 2003): 437-455.

Link 7

Garcia, J. L. A. "Current Conceptions of Racism." Journal of Social Philosophy.  Vol. 28 No. 2, (Fall 1997):5-42.

Link 8

Jeffers, Chike. "Cultural Theory of Race." Ethics. Vol. 123, No. 3 (April 2013): 403-426.

Link 9

Spencer, Quayshawn.  " A Radical Solution to the Race Problem." Philosophy of Science. Vol. 81, No. 5 (December 2014): 1025-1038.

Link 10

Matthew, Dale. "Racial Injustice, Racial Discrimination, and Racism: How Are They Related?" Social Theory and Practice. Vol. 43, No. 4 (October 2017): 885- 914

Link 11

Reed, Adolph Jr. "Marx, Race, and Neoliberalism." New Labor Forum. Vol. 22, No. 1 (Winter 2013): 48-57.

Recommended:

Link 12

Kihika, Maureen. "Ghosts and Shadows A History of Racism in Canada." CGJSC / RCESSC .Vol. 2, Iss/Num. 1 (Spring/Printemps 2013): 35-44.

Link 13

Kimberle . "Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color" Stanford Law Review. Vol. 43, No. 6 (July 1991): 1241-1299.

In-class test (Feb. 1)    30%
Research paper (Apr. 2)  40%
Final exam                     30%

Note: In Class test Feb. 14.

The in-class test is mandatory.  It is a necessary but not sufficient condition for passing the course: Students who do not take it, cannot pass the course.  The test is not returned to students.

SCHEDULE OF READINGS.

The student completing this course will:

• Understand the origin and development of the ideas of race, racialism, and racism.
• Understand the social and normative consequences of racial divisions.
• Evaluate critically arguments related to the nature of society, justice, freedom, and equality.

• Write cogently and clearly about social and political issues.

1. Academic honesty and integrity

In this course, we strive to maintain academic integrity to the highest extent possible. Please familiarize yourself with the meaning of academic integrity by completing SPARK’s Academic Integrity module at the beginning of the course. Breaches of academic integrity range from cheating to plagiarism i.e., the improper crediting of another’s work, the representation of another’s ideas as your own, etc.. All instances of academic dishonesty in this course will be reported to the appropriate university authorities, and can be punishable according to the Senate Policy on Academic Honesty.

1.1 Notes-sharing websites

Notes-sharing websites NSW, such as Course Hero enable students to upload and access course materials including tests, test answers and assignments. They are often used to plagiarize assignments or cheat on tests. The Dean's Office maintains that any student who uploads course material on these websites without permission of the instructor violates York's Academic Honesty Policy, even if that material is not used by another student to cheat or plagiarize. Uploading course material onto an NSW potentially violates two sections of the Senate Policy:

2.1.6 Dissemination of information without permission. Information or experimental data that was collected with a member of faculty or another student, and other works that involved the participation of a faculty member or another student, should not be submitted for publication or otherwise disseminated without their permission.

2.1.10 Encouraging, enabling or causing others to do or attempt any of the above with intent to mislead an instructor, academic unit, program, office or committee as to a student's academic status, qualifications, actions or preparation, or knowingly aiding or abetting anyone in a breach of academic honesty shall itself be considered misconduct. Taking any action which can reasonably be interpreted as intending to encourage or enable others to commit an offence of academic honesty.

1.2 AI

Generative artificial intelligence AI technologies such as OpenAI’s text-generating ChatGPT and image-generating DALL-E are increasingly being used to generate text, images, etc. Note that in this course, all work should be completed by you and you alone. As such, you are not allowed to use generative artificial intelligence AI, such as ChatGPT, to help you complete any of your work in this course. If you do not know whether an online resource or tool can be used in this course, please contact me for guidance. Any use of generative AI in this course will be considered a breach of the Senate Policy on Academic Honesty.

1.3 In brief: Using Notes-sharing websites, Generative Artificial Intelligence, including Grammarly, ChatGPT, etc., is not allowed in this course. You must strive to develop your skills in reading, reflecting on and analyzing difficult issues, writing about them, correcting and editing your own writing.  These are transferable skills, useful for life and careers.

2. Turnitin

To promote academic integrity in this course, students will be required to submit their written assignments to Turnitin via the course Moodle for a review of textual similarity and the detection of possible plagiarism. In so doing, students will allow their material to be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database, where they will be used only for the purpose of detecting plagiarism. The terms that apply to the University’s use of the Turnitin service are described on the Turnitin.com website.

3. Late policy.

Assignments must be submitted on time.  No extensions will be generally granted for papers, other than in some officially documented exceptional circumstances illness, bereavement, disability, special needs.  Late papers will be penalized 5% per day.  There are no exceptions to this rule.

4. Copy Rights:

Note that all lectures, both their content and recordings of them, are protected by copyright law.

5. Course information

All students are expected to familiarize themselves with the following information:

Student Rights & Responsibilities

Academic Accommodation for Students with Disabilities