Race as a Biological Concept Social Construct or Eliminativism
There have been many debates on the reality of race. These are the three major arguments on race: race as a natural biological concept (naturalism), social constructionism, or race from an eliminativism viewpoint. Naturalism focuses on the objective characteristics to distinguish differences among racial groups. Social constructionist Sally Haslanger, would argue races are ‘real’ as a social concept, but are not natural biological groups. Eliminativists says that we should stop talking about race as a real concept. They claim race is much like the Easter bunny, that it does not exist. Therefore, we should stop talking about ‘race’ as a real concept. I will discuss the common sense …show more content…
He claims, that Andreasen says a cladistic classification can be represented in a “phylogenetic tree.” He says, these phylogenetic trees, “identify breeding populations in relation to closeness of other human populations through genetic distance (Glasgow 2003).” Using this method of classification Andreasen is able split up the groups into separate racial groups, based on genetic distance and borrowing from Cavalli-Sforza racial data. Andreasen said, “It means that it is possible to give biologically objective definition of race. Races are monophyletic groups; they are ancestor-descendant sequences of breeding populations, or groups of such sequences, that share a common origin (Glasgow 2003).” Glasgow states this has many virtues. First, that it validates the biological claim to the race conversation. Second, he says depends on reproductive isolation. Third, he says the cladistic model carries no “racist baggage, unlike so many preceding biological notions of race.” Glasgow points out the folk notion of race does not name nine different races like in Andreasen model of races. The common folk notion realizes on the “three major races, African, Asian, and Caucasian; others consider Latinos, or Native Americans, to constitute a race (Glasgow 2003).” He shows evidence where Andreasen claims the ‘Asian’ race is a folk category and not a cladistic race. Claiming North East …show more content…
"Race: A Biological Concept or Social Concept?" The Philosophy of Science Association 67 (2000): n. pag. Web. 5 Oct. 2016.
Glasgow, Joshua. "On the New Biology of Race." JSTOR. Journal of Philosophy, n.d. Web. 6 Feb. 2016.
Haslanger, Sally. "A Social Constructionist Analysis of Race." Resisting Reality (2012): 298-310.
There have been many debates on the reality of race. These are the three major arguments on race: race as a natural biological concept (naturalism), social constructionism, or race from an eliminativism viewpoint. Naturalism focuses on the objective characteristics to distinguish differences among racial groups. Social constructionist Sally Haslanger, would argue races are ‘real’ as a social concept, but are not natural biological groups. Eliminativists says that we should stop talking about race as a real concept. They claim race is much like the Easter bunny, that it does not exist. Therefore, we should stop talking about ‘race’ as a real concept. I will discuss the common sense …show more content…
He claims, that Andreasen says a cladistic classification can be represented in a “phylogenetic tree.” He says, these phylogenetic trees, “identify breeding populations in relation to closeness of other human populations through genetic distance (Glasgow 2003).” Using this method of classification Andreasen is able split up the groups into separate racial groups, based on genetic distance and borrowing from Cavalli-Sforza racial data. Andreasen said, “It means that it is possible to give biologically objective definition of race. Races are monophyletic groups; they are ancestor-descendant sequences of breeding populations, or groups of such sequences, that share a common origin (Glasgow 2003).” Glasgow states this has many virtues. First, that it validates the biological claim to the race conversation. Second, he says depends on reproductive isolation. Third, he says the cladistic model carries no “racist baggage, unlike so many preceding biological notions of race.” Glasgow points out the folk notion of race does not name nine different races like in Andreasen model of races. The common folk notion realizes on the “three major races, African, Asian, and Caucasian; others consider Latinos, or Native Americans, to constitute a race (Glasgow 2003).” He shows evidence where Andreasen claims the ‘Asian’ race is a folk category and not a cladistic race. Claiming North East …show more content…
"Race: A Biological Concept or Social Concept?" The Philosophy of Science Association 67 (2000): n. pag. Web. 5 Oct. 2016.
Glasgow, Joshua. "On the New Biology of Race." JSTOR. Journal of Philosophy, n.d. Web. 6 Feb. 2016.
Haslanger, Sally. "A Social Constructionist Analysis of Race." Resisting Reality (2012): 298-310.