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Reading group reminder - The return of biological races? With Celso Neto
The return of biological races? With Celso Neto
Wednesday 9 July 2025, 16:00 - 17:30 (British Summer Time)
The belief in biological races has a long history associated with colonialism, eugenics, and scientific racism (Bernasconi and Lott 2000; Saini 2019). This belief was vigorously rejected in the aftermath of WWII, but some mainstream scientists and philosophers of race are now reviving it (Andreasen 2004; Spencer 2012; Hardimon 2017; Reich 2018). These scholars are self-declared anti-racists and some of them even claim that accepting biological races is a good strategy for anti-racist movements (Hardimon 2017).
In this reading group, I critically evaluate this return of biological races. I start by presenting its motivations, showing how scholars attempt to free the notion of biological race from its past racist and political connotations. I consider arguments in favour of and against this new notion of biological race. I argue that both sides of the debate fall into a common trap, namely they overlook how political values still shape beliefs in biological races. Exposing these values is key to fully understanding the implications of scientific and philosophical beliefs about race. It also provides a more nuanced understanding of why the return of biological races fails.