Redefining Reality - The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science

The concept of race has long been a part of human culture. We have
used it to justify war, to deny people rights, and as a source of pride.
But biological attempts to specify it have failed. It is certainly true
that there are observable differences among people from different regions,
but none of the attempts to categorize people using these and their genetic
sources has worked. Genetic diversity within racial groups turns out
to be greater than it is across racial divides. Attempts to locate race in
psychological features have not been successful either. Is race real even if it
is not biological?
Some of the dividing lines we create between communities are real,
representing actual differences between people, and some of them
are arbitrary, not something that is actually a part of the real world
of course, are racial lines. But is race a part of reality or simply a
social construct?
For thinkers before the 20 th century, there was no doubt that race
was real. Immanuel Kant, in his 1775 essay “Of the Different
Human Races,” divided us into four categories based on skin color:
“the noble blonde” of northern Europe, “the copper red” of the
Americas and south Asia, “the black” of Africa, and “the yellowolive”
of East Asia and the Middle East. According to Kant, aspects
of mind and moral character could be ranked in this division.
In the two centuries following Kant, we see this notion of geography
tied to visible biological features, invisible biological features, and
elements of character all bound up together in one package called
race that was used to justify beliefs about human worth.
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