Ethics and Mores of Race - by Naomi Zack (Paperback)

About the Book

Naomi Zack brings us an indispensable work in the ethics of race through an inquiry into the history of moral philosophy. 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 r...

Book Synopsis

Naomi Zack brings us an indispensable work in the ethics of race through an inquiry into the history of moral philosophy. 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. In the preface to the paperback edition, Zack addresses the criticisms raised in response to this book and concludes that a focus on rights and justice, rather than privilege, is the only fruitful pathway towards a functioning ethics of race.

Review Quotes

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.

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.

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.

About the Author

Naomi Zack is a professor of philosophy at the University of Oregon.