Rowman & Littlefield Publishers The Ethics and Mores of Race: Equality After the History of Philosophy

Preeminent philosopher, Naomi Zack, brings us an indispensable work in the ethics of race through an inquiry into the history of moral philosophy. Beginning with Plato and a philosophical tradition that has largely ignored race, The Ethics and Mores of Race: Equality after the History of Philosophy enters into a web of ideas, ethics, and morals that untangle our evolving ideas of racial equality straight into the twenty-first century. The dichotomy between ethics and mores has long aided the separation of what is right with ideas of equality. Zack tackles the co-existence of slavery with the classic moral systems and continues to show how our society has evolved and our mores with it. An ethics of race my not exist yet, but this book gives us twelve discerning requirements to establish it. Review In order to ground ethical judgments about race, Zack (Univ. of Oregon) seeks a set of requirements for an "ethics of race." She critically probes the history of philosophical ethics, garnering valuable insights from each historical period and identifying problem areas such as elitism, a lack of a notion of human equality, and an overvaluation of the form of property ownership without regard to what is owned. Zack also argues that philosophical ethics has been limited by its close connection to political theory and ideas of government and that one needs a cosmopolitan view to provide better ethical perspectives on questions of race. Zack makes a valuable distinction between ethics and mores: ethics is a theoretical inquiry neutral of time and place, whereas mores is concretely historical and tied to group practices such as religion, tradition, and family. This important distinction helps readers understand gaps between ethical pronouncements and actual behavior. The author ends with 12 essential requirements for an "ethics of race." This book is significant for advancing contemporary discussions of racial issues. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers.--CHOICE Naomi Zack's magisterial and monumental work in the ethics of race is an intellectual tour-de-force that takes the reader on an exciting scholarly journey through the history of moral philosophy. Zack is both a philosophical detective combing the history of moral philosophy and a constructive theoretician who in the end give us twelve rich, original, and insightful requirements for an ethics of race.--Jason D. Hill, De Paul University This lucidly written book emphasizes the important distinction between ethics and mores and demonstrates how dominance of the latter poses challenges for struggles against racism. Arguing for egalitarian humanism, Naomi Zack advances an outline for what she calls "an ethics of race," a critical position encompassing several considerations for living in a world riddled by a minefield of racial impositions and challenges. The virtues of this book are many. It brings nuance to Zack's nearly two decades of work on problems of race and racism, and it outlines the terrain of ethics and moral philosophy (the normative landscape) in ways accessible to students and thought-provoking for scholars in the fields of ethics, political thought, and critical race theory.--Lewis R. Gordon, Professor of Philosophy and Africana Studies, University of Connecticut Most books on ethics and race have focused on applied ethics issues, like affirmative action. In this highly original and challenging discussion, Naomi Zack sets out to answer a different and harder question: how to construct an "ethics of race" in the light of the history of ethics in Western philosophy.--Charles Mills, John Evans Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy, Northwestern University About the Author Naomi Zack is a professor of philosophy at the University of Oregon. She is author of White Privilege and Black Rights: The Injustice of U.S. Police Racial Profiling and Homicide (R&L 2015), The Ethics and Mores