Abstract: The first European to divide the peoples of the world into distinct races, in the seventeenth century, claimed that the Sami people of northern Scandinavia were one of four races on earth; Native Americans, Europeans, South Asians, and North Africans together were considered a second race. How did such a bizarre distinction among groups of people develop into one of the most historically significant ideas of the modern world? The talk will trace particularly significant moments in the intellectual history of the concept of race with a focus on the West, from its prehistory to the contemporary philosophy of race.

About the Speaker: William Edelglass is Professor of Philosophy, and Director of Environmental Studies at Marlboro College in Vermont, USA. He is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Environmental Philosophy and is the co-editor of the journal, "Environmental Philosophy". He is also co-editor of Buddhist Philosophy: Essential Readings, the Oxford Handbook of World Philosophy, and Facing Nature: Levinas and Environmental Thought. He is currently co-editing the Routledge Handbook of Indian Buddhist Philosophy and working on a collaboratively authored book on the limits of language in religious traditions. William lives with his wife and two daughters on an off-the-grid homestead in the Green Mountains of Vermont.