Kant, race, and racism: Views from somewhere. By HuapingLu‐Adler, Oxford University Press. 2023

Abstract

In Kant, Race, and Racism, Huaping Lu-Adler issues a bold provocation to Kant studies. To undertake serious research in Kant's philosophy, we must come to terms with Kant's theory of race. And to come to terms with Kant's theory of race, we must radically rethink Kant's standing in philosophy. Lu-Adler's (2023: 6) goal is to shift the scholarship on Kant's raciology from an individualistic focus on what Kant said to a collective account of knowledge creation that situates him within the "nexus of power relations" that enabled his thinking to have purchase on the social actors and meaning makers of his time. This shift would not only alter the most pressing questions of Kant scholarship but also how Kant's philosophy is taught to future generations of philosophy students.Before the book was even released, the mere fact of its existence raised a heated debate on Twitter. One established Kant scholar accused Lu-Adler of "mixing scholarship with activism." Scholarship should be "detached, balanced, and neutral," the scholar argued, whereas "activism is by definition taking a side and promoting a particular socially relevant goal." Several others came to Lu-Adler's defense. Kant should be held responsible for his views on race, they claimed. Historical figures must be re-evaluated against current standards.Lu-Adler's contention is that neither position is adequate. There is no neutral standpoint available when it comes to Kant scholarship, she claims, either for Kant's defenders or for his accusers. This is where the book's striking subtitle ("views from somewhere") comes into play. Coming to terms with Kant's situation requires that we too-and here we find that the book is addressed to those who hold positions of power in the academy, we researchers and teachers-inhabit positions of power that cannot be bracketed from what we research and teach. To confront Kant's racism is to grapple with our own standpoint as scholars and students of his philosophy.Scholars working in other fields may find this methodological claim too obvious to constitute a provocation. That Lu-Adler's study is provocative may well be an indictment on Kant scholarship. But there is something to Kant's project that is not easily dismissed. Critical philosophy is the attempt to think the objective from the subjective, the infinite from the finite, and Lu-Adler invites us to consider a further transcendental inversion: the attempt to think in abstraction from a socially embedded position. The question is, can critical philosophy be undertaken from somewhere? Lu-Adler is skeptical, and for reasons that demand attention. Her argument is divided into three parts, which I briefly outline in what follows. I focus especially on Part I, which I think will best motivate readers to get their hands on this important book and consider its provocation for themselves. | PART I: REFRAMING THE DISCOURSEIn Part I, Lu-Adler (2023: 76) rejects the prevailing "individualistic" approach in the scholarship on Kant's theory of race, which "prioritizes allegedly racist i...