is paper will consist, broadly, of an exploration of critical race theory in America. In more specific terms, I intent to connect some of the ideas and problems which CR theorists have highlighted as defining the schism which is apparent in the modern, post-enlightenment Western world. In this paper I will attempt to inquire into some of the presuppositions which have helped to shape the underlying assumptions of philosophy and, to a greater extent, modern western society as it has developed. In particular, it would seem fruitful to me to research and explicate on some of the enlightenment thinkers and give context for their opinions and claims.
These critical thinkers were fundamental in shaping various essences which are commonly taken to be the basic properties of humankind. Though it may be a bit difficult to correlate, I would like to move from this to an analysis of racism within the United States specifically. There are, for various reasons, many different misconceptions which have mangled the profound scholarship which came about at this time (the enlightenment) - some of which are perpetuated today. In diagnosing some of the basic assumptions which grew to separate the various groups of people in this time, we can see the bane which still plagues America to this day.
I can honestly say that I have read nothing “philosophical” on the subject of race. All I know that our champions of early modern/modern philosophy (Descartes, Hume, Kant, Nietzsche, Hegel etc.) were all either bleeding racists or outright misogynists. Clearly their influence on the modern world solidifies a case for why racism has become such a stigma on American society today. It’s interesting to me how America was the first nation to acknowledge individual liberties (at least the first to proclaim these liberties publicly) as basic properties of human autonomy, yet carry a reputation for its history of racism. I too want to know how it works that the early philosophers/social theorist of the post enlightenment era, so influential in their writings about human autonomy, could make such broad generalizations about non-white ethnicities, by essential excluding them from basic principles of human autonomy, that has no doubt affected the way we view race today.
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