Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference : Race in Early Modern Philosophy /
Smith, Justin E. H.
Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference : Race in Early Modern Philosophy / Justin E. H. Smith. - Pilot project. eBook available to selected US libraries only - 1 online resource (312 p.)
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- A Note on Citations and Terminology -- Introduction -- Chapter 1: Curious Kinks -- Chapter 2: Toward a Historical Ontology of Race -- Chapter 3: New Worlds -- Chapter 4: The Specter of Polygenesis -- Chapter 5: Diversity as Degeneration -- Chapter 6: From Lineage to Biogeography -- Chapter 7: L eibniz on Human Equality and Human Domination -- Chapter 8: Anton Wilhelm Amo -- Chapter 9: Race and Its Discontents in the Enlightenment -- Conclusion -- Biographical Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec
People have always been xenophobic, but an explicit philosophical and scientific view of human racial difference only began to emerge during the modern period. Why and how did this happen? Surveying a range of philosophical and natural-scientific texts, dating from the Spanish Renaissance to the German Enlightenment, Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference charts the evolution of the modern concept of race and shows that natural philosophy, particularly efforts to taxonomize and to order nature, played a crucial role.Smith demonstrates how the denial of moral equality between Europeans and non-Europeans resulted from converging philosophical and scientific developments, including a declining belief in human nature's universality and the rise of biological classification. The racial typing of human beings grew from the need to understand humanity within an all-encompassing system of nature, alongside plants, minerals, primates, and other animals. While racial difference as seen through science did not arise in order to justify the enslavement of people, it became a rationalization and buttress for the practices of trans-Atlantic slavery. From the work of François Bernier to G. W. Leibniz, Immanuel Kant, and others, Smith delves into philosophy's part in the legacy and damages of modern racism.With a broad narrative stretching over two centuries, Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference takes a critical historical look at how the racial categories that we divide ourselves into came into being.
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
In English.
9780691176345 9781400866311
10.1515/9781400866311 doi
Ethnicity--Philosophy.
Evolution (Biology).
Philosophy of nature.
Race--Philosophy.
Science--Philosophy.
PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys / General.
Anton Wilhelm Amo. European philosophy. Franois Bernier. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Ibero-American world. Johann Friedrich Blumenbach. Johann Gottfried Herder. New World peoples. New World. Renaissance. apes. biogeography. biological classification. biology. casuistical approach. categorial schemes. cognitivist approach. cultural anthropology. cultural difference. degeneration. degenerationism. diffusionist models. early modern universalism. eighteenth-century Germany. enslavement. higher primates. human difference. human diversity. human domination. human equality. human groups. human migration. human origins. human physical appearance. human racial diversity. human reason. human species. human variety. humanity. lineage. modern paleoanthropology. modern period. modern philosophy. modern race concept. modern racial classification. modern racial thinking. modern racism. moral equality. multiplicity. natural sciences. nonracial philosophical anthropology. novissima americana. polygenesis. pre-Adamism. race concept. race. racial categories. racial difference. racial theory. racial thinking. racial typing. racism. social constructionism. social sciences. taxonomic distinctions. textual sources. trans-Atlantic slavery. transhistorical sense. xenophobia.
GN269 / .S65 2017
305.8001
Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference : Race in Early Modern Philosophy / Justin E. H. Smith. - Pilot project. eBook available to selected US libraries only - 1 online resource (312 p.)
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- A Note on Citations and Terminology -- Introduction -- Chapter 1: Curious Kinks -- Chapter 2: Toward a Historical Ontology of Race -- Chapter 3: New Worlds -- Chapter 4: The Specter of Polygenesis -- Chapter 5: Diversity as Degeneration -- Chapter 6: From Lineage to Biogeography -- Chapter 7: L eibniz on Human Equality and Human Domination -- Chapter 8: Anton Wilhelm Amo -- Chapter 9: Race and Its Discontents in the Enlightenment -- Conclusion -- Biographical Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec
People have always been xenophobic, but an explicit philosophical and scientific view of human racial difference only began to emerge during the modern period. Why and how did this happen? Surveying a range of philosophical and natural-scientific texts, dating from the Spanish Renaissance to the German Enlightenment, Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference charts the evolution of the modern concept of race and shows that natural philosophy, particularly efforts to taxonomize and to order nature, played a crucial role.Smith demonstrates how the denial of moral equality between Europeans and non-Europeans resulted from converging philosophical and scientific developments, including a declining belief in human nature's universality and the rise of biological classification. The racial typing of human beings grew from the need to understand humanity within an all-encompassing system of nature, alongside plants, minerals, primates, and other animals. While racial difference as seen through science did not arise in order to justify the enslavement of people, it became a rationalization and buttress for the practices of trans-Atlantic slavery. From the work of François Bernier to G. W. Leibniz, Immanuel Kant, and others, Smith delves into philosophy's part in the legacy and damages of modern racism.With a broad narrative stretching over two centuries, Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference takes a critical historical look at how the racial categories that we divide ourselves into came into being.
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
In English.
9780691176345 9781400866311
10.1515/9781400866311 doi
Ethnicity--Philosophy.
Evolution (Biology).
Philosophy of nature.
Race--Philosophy.
Science--Philosophy.
PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys / General.
Anton Wilhelm Amo. European philosophy. Franois Bernier. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Ibero-American world. Johann Friedrich Blumenbach. Johann Gottfried Herder. New World peoples. New World. Renaissance. apes. biogeography. biological classification. biology. casuistical approach. categorial schemes. cognitivist approach. cultural anthropology. cultural difference. degeneration. degenerationism. diffusionist models. early modern universalism. eighteenth-century Germany. enslavement. higher primates. human difference. human diversity. human domination. human equality. human groups. human migration. human origins. human physical appearance. human racial diversity. human reason. human species. human variety. humanity. lineage. modern paleoanthropology. modern period. modern philosophy. modern race concept. modern racial classification. modern racial thinking. modern racism. moral equality. multiplicity. natural sciences. nonracial philosophical anthropology. novissima americana. polygenesis. pre-Adamism. race concept. race. racial categories. racial difference. racial theory. racial thinking. racial typing. racism. social constructionism. social sciences. taxonomic distinctions. textual sources. trans-Atlantic slavery. transhistorical sense. xenophobia.
GN269 / .S65 2017
305.8001