This book recounts a series of discussions between philosopher Jorge J. E. Gracia and fifteen prominent scholars on race, ethnicity, nationality, and Hispanic/Latino identity in the United States. These debates relate to two distinct traditions: the philosophy of race begun by African Americans in the nineteenth century, and the search for an understanding of identity initiated by Latin American philosophers in the sixteenth century. Participants include Linda M. Alcoff, K. Anthony Appiah, Richard J. Bernstein, Lawrence Blum, Robert Gooding-Williams, Eduardo Mendieta, and Lucius T. Outlaw Jr. ... More

This book recounts a series of discussions between philosopher Jorge J. E. Gracia and fifteen prominent scholars on race, ethnicity, nationality, and Hispanic/Latino identity in the United States. These debates relate to two distinct traditions: the philosophy of race begun by African Americans in the nineteenth century, and the search for an understanding of identity initiated by Latin American philosophers in the sixteenth century. Participants include Linda M. Alcoff, K. Anthony Appiah, Richard J. Bernstein, Lawrence Blum, Robert Gooding-Williams, Eduardo Mendieta, and Lucius T. Outlaw Jr. The resulting dialogues reflect the analytic, Aristotelian, Continental, literary, Marxist, and pragmatic schools of thought. The debates cover the philosophy of Hispanics/Latinos in the United States and then move on to the philosophy of African Americans and Anglo Americans in the United States and the philosophy of Latin Americans in Latin America. Gracia and his interlocutors discuss the nature of race and ethnicity and their relation to nationality, linguistic rights, matters of identity, and affirmative action. They bind the concepts of race and ethnicity together in ways that open up new paths of inquiry. Gracia's familial-historical theory of ethnic and Hispanic/Latino identity operates at the center of each of these discussions, providing access to the philosopher's arguments while adding depth to issues that can be difficult to understand.