Slavery and Race in Early Modern Philosophy

Undergraduate / Graduate

Between 1600 and 1800, the transatlantic slave trade perpetrated by Europeans reached its height; Ottoman and Barbary Coast slavery along the coast of the Mediterranean were well-known all across Europe. During these two centuries, activists, philosophers and politicians engaged in lively debates about slavery. These debates contain both the origins of our modern conception of equality as well as the modern conception of "race." Our reading of these debates will be guided by several persisting questions: how did the practice of slavery influence our conception of equality? How did debates about the slave trade influence the emergence of modern notions of "race"? Are there things that should be known without argument? And what is the appropriate response to thinking that has "gone off the rails"? Through these questions, we will also engage a meta-philosophical problem about the purpose of doing philosophy. If the failure of many early modern philosophers to unequivocally condemn slavery were a failure of their philosophy, how can philosophy avoid similar mistakes today? By contrast, if the early modern philosophers' failure to condemn slavery were "merely" a failure of cultural prejudices or false empirical beliefs, does philosophy still have anything relevant to say against injustice? (A)