Dr. Phila M. Msimang

Senior Lecturer

msimangp@sun.ac.za

Phila M. Msimang is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Stellenbosch University and the Secretary of the Azanian Philosophical Society (APS). He is an active member of the International Philosophy of Biology Circle (IPBC) and several international research groups examining the role of race in science. His research focuses on the challenges of conceptualizing group descriptors in the sciences with the aim of critiquing and, where appropriate, improving their application in research.

Msimang has written on the use of group descriptors in public policy design and the ethical and epistemic implications of group descriptors in the human and health sciences. His work explores how and under what circumstances classifications related to community, identity, socio-political affiliation, social difference, and biological difference become socially and scientifically significant. Through his research, he seeks to address the complexities and consequences of such descriptors in both research and social contexts.

Selected publications

Book chapters

• 2021. Social races in biomedical settings. In Ludovica Lorusso and Rasmus Grønfeldt Winther (eds) Remapping Race in a Global Context. Routledge. (HTML)
• 2021. Revisiting race and biology in the South African social sciences. In David Ludwig, Inkeri Koskinen, Zinhle Mncube, Luana Poliseli, Luis Reyes-Galindo (eds) Global Epistemologies and the Philosophy of Science. Routledge, 243–253. (HTML)

 Journal articles

• 2024. Prescribing Race: No Blank Scripts for Using Race and Ethnicity in Health. Argumenta (online first), 1–24. (HMTL)
• 2022. The IRR as false witness: how the Institute of Race Relations strategically misinforms us about race and policy (as a threat to deliberative democracy). Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory 172 (2), 1–31. (HTML)
• 2020. Medicine, anti-realism, and ideology: variation in medical genetics does not show that race is biologically real. Northern European Journal of Philosophy 20 (2), 117–140. (HTML)

 Scientific communications

• (in progress). What is the biological profile of ‘the’ South African?
• 2022. That only the elite should have children is a worrying argument. South African Journal of Bioethics & Law 15 (1), 6–7. (HTML); Don’t shy away from the elitist implications of your argument: Response to de Roubaix. South African Journal of Bioethics & Law 15 (2), 42–43. (HTML)

A more comprehensive list of Msimang’s academic publications can be found on Google Scholar. These publications are available for download on Researc​hGate​.