Race: A Philosophical Introduction

In Race: A Philosophical Introduction, Second Edition, PaulC. Taylor provides an accessible guide to a well-travelled butstill-mysterious area of the contemporary social landscape. As inthe first edition, the book blends metaphysics and socialphilosophy, analytic philosophy and pragmatic philosophy ofexperience. In this thoroughly updated and revised volume, Tayloroutlines the main features and implications of race-thinking, whileengaging the ideas of such important figures as Linda Alcoff, K.Anthony Appiah, W. E. B. Du Bois, Michel Foucault, Sally Haslanger, and Howard Winant. The result is a comprehensive but accessibleintroduction to philosophical race theory and to a non-biologicaland situational notion of race.

The book unfolds in a sequence of five chapters, each devoted toone of the following questions: What is race-thinking? Don'twe know better than to talk about race now? Are there any races?What is it like to have a racial identity? And how important, ethically, is colorblindness? On the way to answering thesequestions, Race takes up topics like mixed-race identity, white supremacy, the relationship between the race concept andother social identity categories and the impact of race-thinking onour erotic and romantic lives. The second edition's newconcluding chapter explores the racially fraught issues ofpolicing, immigration, and global justice, and interrogates thethought that Barack Obama has ushered in a post-racial age. Thisvolume is suitable for the educated general reader as well as forstudents and scholars in ethnic studies, philosophy, sociology, andother related fields.