A Phenomenology of Race in Frege’s Logic

Abstract

This article derives from a project attempting to show that Western formal logic, from
Aristotle onward, has both been partially constituted by, and partially constitutive of, what has
become known as racism. In the present article, I first discuss, in light of Frege’s honorary role
as founder of the philosophy of mathematics, Reuben Hersh’s What is Mathematics, Really?
Second, I explore how the infamous section of Frege’s 1924 diary (specifically the entries from
March 10 to April 9) supports Hersh's claim regarding the link between political conservatism
and the (historically and currently) dominant school of the philosophy of mathematics, to which
Frege undeniably belongs. Third, I examine Frege’s attempt at a more reader-friendly introduction
to his philosophy of mathematics, The Foundations of Arithmetic. And finally, I briefly analyze
Frege’s Begriffsschrift to see how questions of race arise even at the heights of his logical abstraction.