Kant, Race, and Racism

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Kant scholars tend to avoid the topic of race, presumably because they are embarrassed by and eager to distance themselves from his racist claims. They tend to assume that one can simply set aside these claims and focus on the “good stuff” in Kant’s philosophical system. As a result, Kant’s racial and racist views are under-studied. In this seminar, we investigate Kant’s self-consciously groundbreaking racial views by situating them in the relevant historical and philosophical context and connecting them to his philosophical system as a whole—especially his philosophy of science, anthropology, philosophy of history, and political philosophy. In the process, we will also reflect on important meta-philosophical questions such as how best to understand “racism” when we apply this concept to a historical figure like Kant and the relation between history and philosophy.