Collective Identity and Cultural Pluralism: Alain Locke on Stereotypes in Literature

Southwest Philosophy Review 39 (1):209-216 (2023)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

In this paper, I consider Alain Locke’s critical pragmatism to see how he might address the problem of racist literature, particularly, the use of stereotypes. For my purposes here, it will be assumed that stereotypes are sustained by evil and malicious intentions, whether consciously acknowledged or not. Two issues arise when considering Locke’s critical pragmatism. First, Locke denies the objective status of morality—objective in the sense that moral absolutes exist “out there” and can be classified rightly or wrongly. Thus, claiming that stereotypes are “evil” must have a different connotation for Locke than one might assume. The second issue is that it has been argued that Locke creates and uses stereotypes himself. The paper will progress as follows: I first address Locke’s use of stereotypes, contending that Locke does not in fact use stereotypes. He has a notion of collective identity or representation that he uses as a heuristic to counteract racist uses of stereotypes. While similar to a stereotype, collective identity is qualitatively different. Next, I discuss Locke’s understanding of cultural pluralism as the tool with which Locke is able to address racist stereotypes, on the one hand, and defend his use of collective identity on the other. I conclude that though Locke’s account is useful it lacks the moral weight, which I would like, to condemn stereotypes as fully wrong.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 101,636

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

John Locke: Identity, Persons, and Personal Identity.Ruth Boeker - 2013 - Oxford Bibliographies in Philosophy.
Locke and Rorty on Cultural Pluralism.Keunchang Oh - 2021 - Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 57 (1):45-64.
What’s Wrong with Stereotypes? The Falsity Hypothesis.Erin Beeghly - 2021 - Social Theory and Practice 47 (1):33-61.
‘The Secrets of All Hearts’: Locke on Personal Identity.Galen Strawson - 2015 - Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 76:111-141.
The Moral Dimension in Locke's Account of Persons and Personal Identity.Ruth Boeker - 2014 - History of Philosophy Quarterly 31 (3):229-247.
Stereotyping and Generics.Anne Bosse - 2022 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy:1-17.

Analytics

Added to PP
2023-04-22

Downloads
36 (#631,696)

6 months
4 (#1,260,583)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Joshua Anderson
Virginia State University

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references