Research Group
in Analytic Philosophy

Abstract

It will be argued that the everyday concept of "racism" includes the following four components: (1) that the race is a bona fide biological concept ; (2) that races differ not only with respect to morphological characteristics (e.g. skin color, hair texture, etc.) but also with respect to psychological characteristics (e.g. intelligence, propensity for criminal behavior, etc.); (3) that at least in some situations it is legitimate to treat members of these different groups differently; and (4) that racism is morally unacceptable. I will explore the relations between these four components, and particularly whether (1), (2) and (3) necessarily lead to (4).