>>11150278>A soul is not a biological concept.The point which I was addressing, specifically, is, "race is real." And what I said in relation to that is, race is real only in relation to the body; but every man is equal in his mind, and has the power to make himself what he will."
>>Hardly. Racism has existed since history started being written, at least. It exists in different primate groups. It's a survival tactic to distrust anything that doesn't look like yourselfNationalism has existed since time immemorial, but racialism is a modern concept. The idea that your genetic composure "makes you" what you are, "makes" you virtuous, rather than your character. Nobody though that way before now. Even in Homer we don't find that idea. Sarpedon says to Glaucus that a king only attains his station by virtue, not blood--by what he does with his will. The ancients knew that the mind is spiritual, not bodily, so the idea that your body could determine your intelligence would have been absurd to them. The Romans never would have permitted a multiracial Empire if the ancients were racialists. "Black people were not excluded from any profession, and there was usually no stigma or bias against mixed race relationships in Antiquity." (Winter 1997.)
https://www.jstor.org/stable/20163634 See what Epictetus says about us: "Two things are mingled in the generation of man, body in common with the animals, and reason and intelligence in common with the gods."