{"id":{"repo_id":"ku","oai_identifier":"oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/34509"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/ku/oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/34509","repository":{"repo_id":"ku","name":"University of Kansas","base_url":"https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/server/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"An Inquiry Concerning the Nature of Racial Discourse","abstract":"In this dissertation, I assess the nature of racial discourse from an interdisciplinary perspective. I argue against the new biological racial realism, according to which races are genetic natural kinds or distinct parts of the human phylogenetic tree. I show—on both empirical and theoretical grounds—that the reality of race cannot be supported in this way. Then, I turn to evolutionary biology and psychology for a proper account of race that can underwrite racial discourse. According to this account, there is no specific psychological mechanism that has evolved to track races in humans: racial cognition in early infancy is the result of a psychological mechanism that humans have evolved to assess similarities/differences in human faces, and racial cognition later in life is the result of various mechanisms that evolved to track social groups of one kind or another.","abstract_html":"In this dissertation, I assess the nature of racial discourse from an interdisciplinary perspective. I argue against the new biological racial realism, according to which races are genetic natural kinds or distinct parts of the human phylogenetic tree. I show—on both empirical and theoretical grounds—that the reality of race cannot be supported in this way. Then, I turn to evolutionary biology and psychology for a proper account of race that can underwrite racial discourse. According to this account, there is no specific psychological mechanism that has evolved to track races in humans: racial cognition in early infancy is the result of a psychological mechanism that humans have evolved to assess similarities/differences in human faces, and racial cognition later in life is the result of various mechanisms that evolved to track social groups of one kind or another.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Osmanoglu, Kamuran"],"institution":"University of Kansas","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Schulz, Armin W"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2020,"date_issued":"2020-05-31","date_published":"2020-05-31","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:46:05Z","subjects":["Philosophy of science","facial familiarity","phylogenetics","race","racial cognition","social construction"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright held by the author."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.other","label":"Dc Identifier Other","values":["http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:17175"],"render_values":[{"text":"http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:17175","href":"http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:17175","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/1808/34509","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Schulz, Armin W"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Osmanoglu, Kamuran"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2023-07-04T17:29:02Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2023-07-04T17:29:02Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2020-05-31"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["University of Kansas"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Dissertation"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Philosophy of science","facial familiarity","phylogenetics","race","racial cognition","social construction"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright held by the author."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.other","label":"Dc Identifier Other","values":["http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:17175"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/1808/34509"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["In this dissertation, I assess the nature of racial discourse from an interdisciplinary perspective. I argue against the new biological racial realism, according to which races are genetic natural kinds or distinct parts of the human phylogenetic tree. I show—on both empirical and theoretical grounds—that the reality of race cannot be supported in this way. Then, I turn to evolutionary biology and psychology for a proper account of race that can underwrite racial discourse. According to this account, there is no specific psychological mechanism that has evolved to track races in humans: racial cognition in early infancy is the result of a psychological mechanism that humans have evolved to assess similarities/differences in human faces, and racial cognition later in life is the result of various mechanisms that evolved to track social groups of one kind or another."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["An Inquiry Concerning the Nature of Racial Discourse"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Schulz, Armin W"],"dc:creator":["Osmanoglu, Kamuran"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2023-07-04T17:29:02Z"],"dc:date.available":["2023-07-04T17:29:02Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2020-05-31"],"dc:description.abstract":["In this dissertation, I assess the nature of racial discourse from an interdisciplinary perspective. I argue against the new biological racial realism, according to which races are genetic natural kinds or distinct parts of the human phylogenetic tree. I show—on both empirical and theoretical grounds—that the reality of race cannot be supported in this way. Then, I turn to evolutionary biology and psychology for a proper account of race that can underwrite racial discourse. According to this account, there is no specific psychological mechanism that has evolved to track races in humans: racial cognition in early infancy is the result of a psychological mechanism that humans have evolved to assess similarities/differences in human faces, and racial cognition later in life is the result of various mechanisms that evolved to track social groups of one kind or another."],"dc:identifier.other":["http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:17175"],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://hdl.handle.net/1808/34509"],"dc:language.iso":["en"],"dc:publisher":["University of Kansas"],"dc:rights":["Copyright held by the author."],"dc:subject":["Philosophy of science","facial familiarity","phylogenetics","race","racial cognition","social construction"],"dc:title":["An Inquiry Concerning the Nature of Racial Discourse"],"dc:type":["Dissertation"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:46:05Z"}