TY - JOUR
T1 - Do we need a device to acquire ethnic concepts?
AU - Hochman, Adam
N1 - Copyright 2013 by University of Chicago Press. Originally published in 'Philosophy of science'
PY - 2013/12
Y1 - 2013/12
N2 - Francisco Gil-White argues that the ubiquity of racialism-the view that so-called races have biological essences-can be explained as a by-product of a shared mental module dedicated to ethnic cognition. Gil-White's theory has been endorsed, with some revisions, by Edouard Machery and Luc Faucher. In this skeptical response I argue that our developmental environments contain a wealth, rather than a poverty of racialist stimulus, rendering a nativist explanation of racialism redundant. I also argue that we should not theorize racialism in isolation from racism, as value judgments may play a role in essentialist thinking about the 'other'.
AB - Francisco Gil-White argues that the ubiquity of racialism-the view that so-called races have biological essences-can be explained as a by-product of a shared mental module dedicated to ethnic cognition. Gil-White's theory has been endorsed, with some revisions, by Edouard Machery and Luc Faucher. In this skeptical response I argue that our developmental environments contain a wealth, rather than a poverty of racialist stimulus, rendering a nativist explanation of racialism redundant. I also argue that we should not theorize racialism in isolation from racism, as value judgments may play a role in essentialist thinking about the 'other'.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84891936351&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP0878650
U2 - 10.1086/673896
DO - 10.1086/673896
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84891936351
SN - 0031-8248
VL - 80
SP - 994
EP - 1005
JO - Philosophy of Science
JF - Philosophy of Science
IS - 5
ER -