Phila M. Msimang

Lecturer

msimangp@sun.ac.za

Phila M. Msimang is a Lecturer of Philosophy at Stellenbosch University and the Head of CIRCoRe Workstream IV: Race, Human Categorisation and Science (RHCS). He is the Secretary of the Azanian Philosophical Society (APS) and a member of the International Philosophy of Biology Circle (IPBC) among other societies and associations. He is also a member of several international research groups working on the problem of race in science. His current work deals with the challenges of conceptualising group descriptors in the sciences with the aim to critique or improve their use in research. He has written on the use of group descriptors in the design of public policy and the use and abuse of population descriptors in the human and health sciences. This aspect of his research looks to answer questions about how and under what circumstances classifications of community, identity, socio-political affiliation, social difference, and biological difference become variables of social and scientific significance.

Selected publications

Book chapters

• 2021. Social races in biomedical settings. In Ludovica Lorusso and Rasmus Grønfeldt Winther (eds) Remapping Race. Routledge. (HTML)
• 2021. Revisiting the question of 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 Philosophies of Science. Routledge. (HTML)

 Journal articles

• 2024. Prescribing Race: No Blank Scripts for Using Race and Ethnicity in Health. Argumenta (online first), 1–24. (HMTL)
• 2023 (with Ragnar van der Merwe). Tricky Truths: How Should Alethic Pluralism Accommodate Racial Truths? Acta Analytica (online first), 1–23. (HTML)
• 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)
• 2022. COVID–19 and affirmative action: a response. Filosofia Theoretica: Journal of African Philosophy, Culture and Religions 11 (2), 127–148. (HTML)
• 2022. What is race? Four philosophers, six views. Philosophical Papers 51 (1), 115–145. (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

• (forthcoming). 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​.