A radical solution to the race problem

Q Spencer - Philosophy of Science, 2014 - cambridge.org
Philosophy of Science, 2014cambridge.org
It has become customary among philosophers and biologists to claim that folk racial
classification has no biological basis. This paper attempts to debunk that view. In this paper I
show that 'race', as used in current US race talk, picks out a biologically real entity. I do this
by first showing that 'race', in this use, is not a kind term, but a proper name for a set of
human population groups. Next, using recent human genetic clustering results, I show that
this set of human population groups is a partition of human populations that I call 'the …
It has become customary among philosophers and biologists to claim that folk racial classification has no biological basis. This paper attempts to debunk that view. In this paper I show that ‘race’, as used in current US race talk, picks out a biologically real entity. I do this by first showing that ‘race’, in this use, is not a kind term, but a proper name for a set of human population groups. Next, using recent human genetic clustering results, I show that this set of human population groups is a partition of human populations that I call ‘the Blumenbach partition’.
Cambridge University Press