Racism in Mind

This philosophical analysis of the phenomenon of racism brings together some of the most influential analytic philosophers writing on racism today. The introduction by Tamas Pataki outlines the historical and thematic development of conceptions of race and racism, and locates the following essays against the backdrop of contemporary reactions to that development. While the framework is primarily analytic, the volume also includes essays deeply informed by psychoanalysis, phenomenology, and feminist and social theory.

The fourteen chapters in this collection address three interrelated questions: What is racism? What are the causes of racism? and What are the moral and political implications of racism? Although their approaches are wide ranging, the contributors to Racism in Mind broadly endorse a psychological-characterological approach to the understanding of many aspects of racism.

Michael P. Levine is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Western Australia and, in 2004, visiting professor at the University of Colorado's Center for Humanities and Arts. He is a coauthor of Integrity and the Fragile Self and editor of The Analytic Freud. Tamas Pataki is Honorary Senior Fellow in the Department of Philosophy, University of Melbourne, where he also lectures, and Honorary Fellow of Deakin University. He is the author of Wish-fulfilment in Philosophy and Psychoanalysis: The Tyranny of Desire.

Racism in Mind is noteworthy for its focus on racism, rather than racial categories, the concept of race, or racial identity. The greatest strength of the book is its specialized, interdisciplinary combination of philosophy and psychology. It includes specifically psychological analyses not often seen in a philosophical study of racism.

Raimond Gaita, Professor of Moral Philosophy, University of London King's College:

Philosophers are good at making many and fine distinctions. When that does not undermine our capacity to see the forest for the trees, it is a great service to thought. Racism in Mind provides such a service at a time when it is desperately needed. All the essays in it are of unusually high standard. In this book readers will find the passion and moral seriousness its subject matter deserves, but also the sobriety and discipline that it seldom gets. To read this book is to embark on an intellectual adventure. At the same time, its rigorous attention to evidence and its hard-headed explorations of the psychological and social causes of racism keep readers close to reality. For this achievement its editors deserve high praise.

Michele M. Moody-Adams, Director and Hutchinson Professor, Ethics and Public Life, Cornell University:

Michael P. Levine and Tamas Pataki have assembled an outstanding collection of essays by an impressively broad group of philosophers and social theorists. This is a stimulating and conceptually wide-ranging invitation to intelligent, philosophically informed discussion about the nature, sources, and implications of racism.