Another Mind-Body Problem: A History of Racial Non-being

SUNY Series: Philosophy and Race

by John Harfouch

The mind-body problem in philosophy is typically understood as a discourse concerning the relation of mental states to physical states, and the experience of sensation. On this level it seems to transcend issues of race and racism, but Another Mind-Body Problem demonstrates that racial distinctions have been an integral part of the discourse since the Modern period in philosophy. Reading figures such as Descartes, Leibniz, and Kant in their historical contexts, John Harfouch uncovers discussions of mind and body that engaged closely with philosophical and scientific notions of race in metaphysics and the philosophy of mind, in particular in understanding how the mind unites with the body at birth and is then passed on through sexual reproduction. Kant argued that a person's exterior body and interior psyche are bound together, that non-White people lacked reason, and that this lack of reason was carried on through reproduction such that non-Whites were an example of a union of mind and body without full being. Charting the development of this phenomenon from sixteenth-century medical literature to modern-day race discourse, Harfouch argues for new understandings of Descartes's mind-body problem, Fanon's experience of being 'not-yet human, ' and the place of racism in relation to one of philosophy's most enduring and canonical problems

Genres: Philosophy

268 pages, Hardcover

Published June 1, 2018

Reviews

[dsreads · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd recommend this to anyone interested in this topic of race and being in the 21st century. It's often said we "stand on the shoulders of giants". It seems the vast majority have no idea about these giants, what they stood for or how they saw the world (I'm speaking generally about people online, I'm sure there are deeper integrations in academia).

With that said, I do disagree with a few things, including some of the assumptions made about Descartes and Kant's philosophy. And that's just my opinion, I don't have a philosophy education or background, to back that up, so I'm not going to act like I really know better. Kant argued in Critique of Pure Reason that the entire idea of being vs. "non-being" was deeply flawed, so I don't really get how the assumption is reached that he thought entire races were non-being. He described different cultures that permeate through reproduction, not that these other people groups had NO culture. This translates to modern times too. I don't believe there are many, if any people, who are out there arguing non-whites are actually subhuman or NON-being. That's usually shut down, rightfully so.

But anyway, I want to see anybody succeed in philosophy, business, life in general, regardless of their race. I think that's the idea here.