Racism in Kant's Thought

Abstract

Criticisms of the race theory of Immanuel Kant, who is considered one of the most influential philosophers in the history of modern Western philosophy, have been part of Kant discussions for the last few decades. The subject of criticism is that the philosopher's race theory goes beyond a kind of classification that tries to divide people into different biological groups and includes racist ideas that associate innate biological characteristics with character, talent, personality and moral values. Expressions such as dark skin colour being an indicator of mental retardation, the only thing that will make the existence of races other than white people meaningful is to serve white people, and all races other than white people will be wiped out from the face of the earth are among the philosopher's thoughts that are subject to criticism. These thoughts can be considered extreme not only today, but even in the century in which the philosopher lived. On the other hand, Kant's stance against colonialism, his defence of universal equality, and his discourses against slavery are ideas that can be considered progressive even for his time. This contradiction has brought about a debate about whether there is an inconsistency between the philosopher's racist statements and his defence of universal egalitarianism. These discussions, which developed on the basis of the philosopher's racial theory, have not yet been adequately reflected in Turkish resources. This paper aims to contribute to eliminating this deficiency and to ensure that race theory is taken into account as an important variable in evaluations of the philosopher.

Keywords

• Kant
• Racial Theory
• Race
• Racism
• Universal Egalitarianism

Kant Düşüncesinde Irkçılık

Abstract

Modern Batı felsefe tarihinin en etkili düşünürlerinden biri kabul edilen Immanuel Kant'ın ırk teorisine yönelik eleştiriler son birkaç on yıldır Kant tartışmalarının bir parçası olmuştur. Eleştiriler, düşünürün ırk teorisinin insanları farklı biyolojik gruplara ayırmaya çalışan bir tür sınıflandırmanın ötesine geçerek doğuştan gelen biyolojik özellikleri karakter, yetenek, kişilik ve ahlaki değerlerle ilişkilendiren ırkçı düşünceler içermesine yöneliktir. Koyu ten renginin zihinsel kapasitedeki geriliğin göstergesi olması, beyaz ırk dışındaki ırkların varlığını anlamlı kılacak tek şeyin beyazlara hizmet etmek olduğu ve beyazlar dışındaki bütün ırkların yeryüzünden silinip gideceği gibi ifadeler filozofun eleştiriye konu edilen düşünceleri arasında yer almaktadır. Bu düşünceler yalnızca günümüzde değil, Kant'ın yaşadığı yüzyılda bile birçok filozof için aşırı sayılabilecek niteliktedir. Diğer taraftan, Kant'ın sömürgeciliğe karşı duruşu, evrensel eşitliği savunması ve kölelik aleyhindeki söylemleri kendi dönemi için bile ilerici sayılabilecek düşüncelerdir. Bu çelişki, filozofun ırkçı ifadeleriyle evrensel eşitlikçilik savunusu arasında tutarsızlık olup olmadığı tartışmasını da beraberinde getirmiştir. Düşünürün ırk teorisi temelinde gelişen bu tartışmalar Türkçe kaynaklara henüz yeterince yansımamış durumdadır. Bu çalışma da bu eksikliğin giderilmesine katkıda bulunmayı ve düşünürle ilgili değerlendirmelerde ırk teorisinin de önemli bir değişken olarak dikkate alınmasını sağlamayı amaçlamaktadır.

Keywords

• Kant
• Irk Teorisi
• Irk
• Irkçılık
• Evrensel Eşitlikçilik

References

1. Abundez-Guerra, V. F. (2018). How to Deal with Kant's Racism - In and out of the Classroom. Teaching Philosophy, 41(2), 117-135.
2. Bernasconi, R. (2011). Irk Kavramını Kim İcat Etti? Felsefi Düşüncede Irk ve Irkçılık (3. Basım). (çev. Z. Direk, İ. Esiner, T. Meriç ve N. Ökten). İstanbul: Metis.
3. Bernasconi, R. (2002). Kant as an Unfamiliar Source of Racism. Philosophers on Race: Critical Essays (ed. J. Ward & T. Lott, pp. 145–66). Oxford: Blackwell.
4. Church, J. (2022). Kant, Liberalism, and the Meaning of Life. Oxford University Press.
5. Clewis, R. R. (2015). Reading Kant's Lectures. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. David, A. (2003). Negroes. Race and Racism in Continental Philosophy (ed. R. Bernasconi & S. Cook, pp. 8–18). Indiana: Indiana University Press.
6. Eze, E. C. (1995). The Color of Reason: The Idea of “Race” in Kant’s Anthropology. The Bucknell Review, 38(2), 200–241.
7. Eze, E. C. (1997). The Color of Reason: The Idea of “Race” in Kant’s Anthropology. Postcolonial African Philosophy: A. Critical Reader (ed. E. C. Eze, pp. 103-140). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
8. Frierson, P. (2011). Introduction. Immanuel Kant: Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime and Other Writings (ed. P. Frierson & P. Guyer, pp. vii-xxxv). New York: Cambridge University Press.

9. Gray, S. (2015). Kant's Race Theory, Forster's Counter, and the Metaphysics of Color. The Eighteenth Century, 53, 393–412.
10. Haidery, S. (2021). Is Western Philosophy Irredeemably Racist? Logos, XVII, 51-68.
11. Hobson, J. M. (2012). The Eurocentric Conception of World Politics Western International Theory, 1760–2010. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
12. Höffe, O. (1994). Immanuel Kant (trans. M. Farrier). Albany: State University of New York Press.
13. Isaac, B. (2004). The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity. Princeton University Press.
14. Kant, I. (1992). Lectures on Logic (trans. J. M. Young). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
15. Kant, I. (1999). Of the Different Human Races. The Idea of Race (ed. R. Bernasconi & T. L. Lott, pp. 8-22). Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.
16. Kant, I. (2006). Immanuel Kant, Toward Perpetual Peace and Other Writings on Politics, Peace, and History. New Haven & London, Yale University Press.
17. Kant, I. (2012a). Natural Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
18. Kant, I. (2012b). Lectures on Anthropology. Louden: Cambridge University Press.
19. Kant, I. (2016). Pratik Usun Eleştirisi (çev. İ. Z. Eyuboğlu). İstanbul: Say Yayınları.
20. Kant, I. (2011). Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
21. Kleingeld, P. (2007). Kant's Second Thoughts on Race. The Philosophical Quarterly, 57, 573-592.
22. Kleingeld, P. (2012). Kant and Cosmopolitanism: the Philosophical Ideal of World Citizenship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
23. Lu-Adler, H, (2022). Kant and Slavery-Or Why He Never Became a Racial Egalitarian. Critical Philosophy of Race, 10(2), 263-294.
24. McCarthy, T. (2009). Race, Empire and the Idea of Human Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
25. Mendieta, E. (2011). Geography Is to History as Woman Is to Man: Kant on Sex, Race and Geography. Reading Kant's Geography (ed. S. Elden ve E. Mendieta, pp. 345-368). Albany: State University of New York Press.
26. Mignolo, W. D. (2011). The Darker Side of Western Modernity: Global Futures, Decolonial Options. Durham: Duke University Press.
27. Mills, C. W. (2017). Black Rights/White Wrongs: The Critique of Racial Liberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
28. Mills, C. W. (2005). Kant’s Untermenschen. Race and Racism in Modern Philosophy (ed. A. Valls, pp. 169–193). Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press.
29. Muthu, S. (2003). Enlightenment against Empire. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
30. Nwosimiri, O. (2017) Do the Works of the Nationalist – Ideological Philosophers Undermine Hume’s and Kant’s Ideas About Race? SAGE Open, 7(1): 1-11.
31. Ramsauer, L. (2023). Kant's Racism as a Philosophical Problem. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 104(4), 791-815.
32. Saraçlı, M. (2021). Irkçılığın Avrupa’daki Gelişimi ve Uluslararası Hukuka Etkisi: James Lorimer Örneği. Liberal Düşünce Dergisi, 26(103), 101-118.
33. Schacht, R. (1984), Classical Modern Philosophers: Descartes to Kant. Londra: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
34. Schönfeld, M. (2000). The Philosophy of the Young Kant: The Precritical Project. New York: Oxford University Press.
35. Serequeberhan, T. (1996). Eurocentrism in Philosophy: The Case of Immanuel Kant. The Philosophical Forum, 27(4), 333–356.
36. Simons, J. (2002). Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). From Kant to Levi Strauss: The Background to Contemporary Critical Theory (ed. J. Simons, pp. 17-32). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
37. Smith, J. E. H. (2015). Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference: Race in Early Modern Philosophy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
38. Strickland, L. & Wang, J. (2023). Racism and Eurocentrism in Histories of Philosophy. Open Journal of Philosophy, 13(1), 76-96.
39. Thorpe, L. (2015). The Kant Dictionary. Londra: Bloomsbury Academic.
40. Tibebu, T. (2011). Hegel and the Third World: The Making of Eurocentrism in World History. New York: Syracuse University Press.
41. Valdez, I. (2019). Transnational Cosmopolitanism: Kant, Du Bois, and Justice as a Political Craft. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
42. Wight, M. (2005). Four Seminal Thinkers in International Theory: Machiavelli, Grotius, Kant and Mazzini. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
43. Wilson, C. (2014). Kant on Civilisation, Culture and Moralisation. Kant's Lectures on Anthropology: A Critical Guide (ed. A. Cohen, pp. 191-210). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
44. Wilson, C. (2022). Kant and the Naturalistic Turn of 18th Century Philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press.
45. Wood, A. W. (1999). Kant's Ethical Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
46. Wood, A. W. (2009). Kant. (çev. A. Kovanlıkaya), Ankara: Dost Kitabevi.
47. Wood, A. W. (2006). Kant's Life and Works. A Companion to Kant (ed. G. Bird, pp. 10–30). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.