Finale

I've certainly learned a lot from this class, and I want to thank all of you for the great discussions we've had. I apologize if I raised my hand too many times to babble on about genetics, but science is all I can really bring to the table in a class with many philosophy majors.

Anyway, I was thinking about what I learned and the most important thing to take away from this class were and I considered my stance of elimitivism (again). I don't see elminativism and conservatism as so diametric anymore. For the most part, I think conservationists agree with eliminativists on the fact that race does not exist scientifically, but what that entails is where they differ. One argues that the concept of race is still useful, and the other argues that since it has no basis in science, we should throw out the whole idea. Obviously these two ideological camps have implications for political change, but I think they agree on the most important problem facing the US. They both agree that it should be taught in schools that there is no scientific basis for race. This to me it the idea that has the most potential to change the racial situation in America.

If we begin to teach children at an early age that there is no scientific basis for race (obviously in terms best suited for young minds), then their prejudices they develop over their adolescence can be minimized and hopefully even eliminated. Certainly, there will be those who are indoctrinated by their surroundings to believe that race exists and therefore racism is okay, but at least those individuals will have the ability to choose between the two ideologies. I believe there exists in every human a compassion for other humans, and if this it true the net gain for educating our children on race will be a positive one.