Racism in Philosophy of Hume and Kant Essay Example for Free

Racism in philosophy of Hume and Kant EssayDuring the Age of the information in europiuman history there was high emphasis on the ideals of reason and individualism. Scientists and philosophers pushed reason as an ultimate guideline to reforming society and ch entirelyenging its old traditions and faith. This was the philosophers attempts to further advancing our knowledge through scientific method. Things like skepticism and intellectual interchange were highly promoted during this period. The true way to gain rational suasion was through the process of using logic to make tests and conclusions out of clear evidence rather than irrational ideas. in that respect are two primal enlightenment thinkers, David Hume and Immanuel Kant who despite their high praise of reason and logic, consider clearly racist views in their philosophies. Could these two enlightened thinkers truly be capable of contradicting their entire ism or could it just be pure ignorance? We are going to d iscuss what sort of racist views Hume and Kant treat and how they possibly taked the idea of racial differences. First we must discuss what the idea of reason truly is and what it has to do with human thought.Reason is ultimately what separates us human beings from animate beings. Animals physically cannot express reason. Reason is the mental capacitor to be able to make sense of something. It is how we are able to apply logic to help create facts. Understanding of academics like math, science, and philosophy are attri preciselyes only humans possess. The ability to understand and appreciate nontextual matter and beauty are examples of reason that animals run through never shown. Animals may show desire for certain things, but that is not the same as appreciating the beauty of it. David Hume believes that all human beings share similar moral feelings.He does however believe that animals can feel sympathy which is one of the essential foundations of theology. Hume also believe s that morality is totally independent of religion and that morality is found deep in true human nature itself. He states that the belief in God is irrelevant to morality. This is similar to Immanuel Kants belief in human autonomy. He believes that human beings have their own free will and can think independently without being governed. man can be moral and free without the need of Gods divine support. Hume and Kant believe we have a right to faith but also in the possibility that it limits knowledge to make way for faith.They believe we can have faith in ourselves and be governed by reason rather than our animal impulses. The racism of Hume and Kant are most definitely reflected in their philosophic views. Hume believes in the idea of causation, which is the understanding mingled with two events (one being the cause, the other being the effect) that the second event is always the consequence of the first event. Hume whole-heartedly believes that Europe is the model of all humani ty and culture, that blacks are an inferior passage.He considers their supposed inferiority to whites to be natural. He states that he has never witnessed whatever black manufacturers, artists, or scientists and that they are only when a barbaric get of man. Hume falls into a fatal error of his own causality by saying that there is a causal relation between a persons skin color and their intelligence. He is identifying that simply the color of ones skin makes a constant difference between two races of men.This is dismally contradictory and morally wrong. Kant, despite all of his beliefs in that all humans can understand morality and reason, he singles out blacks as totally inferior in these very human attributes. Kant has actually dismissed a persons statement and position as stupid without a significance of analyzing the content because the person was black. This is extremely contradictory to the sorts of logic and reason a true philosopher should have when regarding any huma n being whether white or black. The two philosophers show a huge lack in open-mindedness when it comes to anyone non-white. The supposed racial differences that Hume and Kant seem to believe there are have no real proof or logic behind them.This is truly ignorant of both Hume and Kant and its surprising that two important philosophers in history could actually believe in ideas that are so close-minded and completely illogical. There is simply no morality or rational thinking behind these false judgments. Kant stating that he has never seen black artists or scientists just sounds like he hasnt looked beyond his backyard window. Although Kant does indeed believe that all humans are born free and that level of intelligence does not determine who deserves to be a slave to another.Despite this positive belief, he still believes blacks are inferior. As intelligent as their ideas of share knowledge for the advancing of mankind sound at first, it is truly sad that they are only discourse for one single race rather than all human beings equally. Their racism does indeed cast ofttimes doubt on their Enlightenment understanding on what a person was. There should not be such a disregard for the possibility of equal opportunity among all human beings. Peoples idea of race is purely subjective and there really are no significant differences. The only true racial differences are geographical.Skin color has nothing to do with ones mental capacity and ability. full treatment Cited Denis, Lara. Kant and Hume on Morality. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The Metaphysics Research Lab, Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI), Stanford University, 26 Mar 2008. Web. 7 Mar 2014. http//plato. stanford. edu/entries/kant-hume-morality/. Maduka, Enyimba. Racism and Philosophy. Racism, Philosophy, and African Thought . izuchukwu, 20 Apr 2005. Web. 10 Mar 2014. http//www. frasouzu. com/Issues and Papers/Enyimba Maduka etc on Racism, Philosophy and African Thought . pdf.