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Race in the Enlightenment, Part II: Kant and Blumenbach

5/30/2018

 
​In this episode, we think we’ve finally found the main culprit: Immanuel Kant! We also discuss two scientists that get a lot of undeserved blame for scientific racism: Johann Friedrich Blumenbach and Petrus Camper.
Some Resources:
  1. To see where these Enlightenment views on race have ended up today, we give you two Steve King interviews. 1. At the Republican Convention: https://youtu.be/Ti5t1WXMs9k; and 2. defending those remarks: https://youtu.be/w3sV6NN5gqs
  2. Sally Hatch Gray, “Kant’s Race Theory, Forster’s Counter, and the Metaphysics of Color,” The Eighteenth Century, Vol. 53, No. 4 (WINTER 2012), pp. 393-412.
  3. Very, Ryan. “Kant’s Racism” (2012)
  4. For a view on Kant that says he tempered his racism in his later works, see Kleingeld, Pauline. “Kant’s second thoughts on race.” The Philosophical Quarterly 57, no. 229 (2007): 573-592.
  5. For a good look at problems with translations of Blumenbach, see Michael, John S. “Nuance Lost in Translation: Interpretations of JF Blumenbach’s Anthropology in the English Speaking World.” NTM 25, no. 3 (2017): 281-309.
  6. Meijer, Miriam Claude, and Petrus Camper. “Petrus Camper on the Origin and Color of Blacks.” History of Anthropology Newsletter 24, no. 2 (1997): 3-9.
  7. Müller-Wille, Staffan. “Linnaeus and the Four Corners of the World.” The Cultural Politics of Blood, 1500–1900. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2014. 191-209.
John S. Michael link
6/25/2018 07:03:24 pm

You target Kant (and I'm not saying you're wrong to do so) but what about Kant's foe... Christophe Meiners? He might be called the godfather of scientific racism and racist aesthetics. Might I request a show about him?

Jim Bindon
6/26/2018 07:55:36 am

We thought that we were already pretty far out in the woods on this one for most listeners, but I agree about the importance of Meiners—especially for the 19th century revival of polygenism.


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