Racial Ontology: 2. Naturalist Theories of Race

In the second of a four part series, “Racial Ontology: A Guide for the Perplexed,”  David Miguel Gray (Colgate University) introduces naturalist theory of race.  Naturalist theories place questions of race in the domain of biology and appeal to physical properties to define what races are.  Problems for developing naturalist theories are discussed as well as some solutions.

Assistant Professor of Philosophy at The University of Memphis

Professor Gray joined the department in 2017. He is also an affiliate faculty member of the Institute for Intelligent Systems. He received his PhD and MA from Harvard University and his BA from Columbia University. Gray’s areas of specialization include Philosophy of Race and Racism, Philosophy of Psychology, African American Philosophy and Philosophy of Mind. His current research focuses and theories of race and racism, Black Nationalism (especially, Du Bois, Fanon, and Malcolm X), philosophy of psychopathology, and cognitive phenomenology. Gray also has interests in philosophy of language, logic, cognitive science, and philosophy of science (general, evolutionary biology, and cognitive psychology).

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