Philosophy of Race and Social Contract Theory Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards defining key philosophical terms, social contract concepts, and frameworks of racial identity based on the lecture transcript.

Thomas Hobbes

Philosopher who posited that human life in a state of nature is nasty, brutish, and short, leading people to give power to the king to escape it.

Veil of Ignorance

A hypothetical decision-making concept where rational people gather without identifiers or personal qualities to design policies for a just society.

Maximif

The policy principle stating that whenever resources are devoted unequally, society should help the lesser privileged first.

Descriptive Thesis

The thesis asserting that the polis (political society) is made by humans.

Normative Thesis

The thesis asserting that the equality of people in the state of nature should lead to the equality of humans in the polity.

Racial Contract

A critique introduced by Mills highlighting how political thinkers have non-explicitly narrowed the extension of 'we' from everyone in a country to educated, rich, white European men.

Domination Contract

A theoretical contract identified by Mills where one social class systemically alienates another class.

Oppression as Anomaly

The perspective that oppression is a minor issue requiring only mild revisions to the system and can be tolerated even if uncleaned.

Oppression as Normal

The perspective that oppression is a fundamental structural problem requiring comprehensive system revision and elimination.

One-Drop Rule

A historical U.S. legal framework where any African ancestry legally defined a person as Black.

Naomi Zach

Philosopher skeptical of biological definitions of race and essentialism who focuses on the unexamined theoretical territory of mixed-race identities.

Quashawn Spencer

Philosopher who argues that while biological race classifications are debated, everyday discussions center on the social realities of race.

Static Fact

A racial framework that treats race as fixed, immutable, and unchangeable, rooted in biological determinism or fixed social racialization.

Dynamic Fact

A racial framework that treats race as fluid, evolving, and context-dependent across generations.

Passing

The process occurring when an individual of one racial origin is perceived and accepted as belonging to another race within specific social contexts.

Subjective View of Race

The grounding view that if race is purely self-identified and sincere, a person cannot be wrong about their race.

Biological/Ancestral View of Race

The grounding view that if race is tied strictly to genetics or lineage, subjective self-identification can be factually incorrect.

Social/Intersubjective View of Race

The grounding view that race is established through external perception, treatment, and social recognition.

Araciality

The choice or stance of completely rejecting racial categorization.

Booker T. Washington

Thinker who prioritized internal community development, self-reliance, and economic empowerment without relying on white recognition.

W.E.B. Du Bois

Thinker who advocated for full political and legal recognition as essential components of racial identity and equality, viewing Black identity as an aspirational project of collective self-determination.

Code-Switching

The practice of alternating between different behaviors, speech patterns, or expressions depending on the social context or dominant culture.

Trivial Traits

Characteristics like hair color that shape minor preferences but do not deeply direct long-term life goals or social structures.

Life-Shaping Identities

Identities such as race or culture that fundamentally modify an individual's long-term projects, relationships, and societal experiences.

Weak Communal Identity

An identity defined by affective resonance—a general feeling of belonging or connection without strict obligations.

Strong Communal Identity

An identity built upon ongoing, open-ended cooperative projects aimed at producing goods for the community.

Biological Racialism

Mallon's approach grounding race in genetic or geographic statistical clusters.

Skepticism (Racial Grounding)

Mallon's approach claiming racial categories are too fluid or philosophically unsound to exist.

Constructionism

Mallon's approach analyzing race as a social construct where individuals are treated as belonging to racial categories regardless of biological features or personal choice.

Liberal Perspective on Demands

The view that moral or social demands require explicit consent to hold justified force, treating unchosen obligations as potentially unjust.

Communitarian Perspective

The view that obligations exist as a consequence of unchosen circumstances into which one is born, resulting in thrust-upon duties.

The Crito Analogy

An analogy drawing on Plato's Crito asserting that tacit consent or benefit from a community creates an obligation to either persuade the community or obey its rules.