The Definition of Race
Using the Ramist Method
1. Race is the sorting of men into collective units fit for moral judgement, by organizing them on the basis of secondary common descent according to right reason on the basis of testimony.
Race can be understood to be of two parts: Its NATURE, and Its PURPOSE.
Race’s NATURE consists of two parts, SUBJECT OF SORTING and METHOD OF ORGANIZATION.
In regards to race’s NATURE in respect to SUBJECT OF SORTING, MAN is the only reasonable creature to possess matter as well as form, and is said truly to bear God’s image.
Unlike the angels, man is capable of reproduction; whereas, unlike beasts, his seed is in possession of reason.
Therefore, man is the only creature capable of reproducing according to reason; and is thus the only creature who bears ethical weight in its own reproduction.
The other SUBJECT OF SORTING is PRIMARY COMMON DESCENT.
Though man himself is the only being that is being considered in the topic of race, primary common descent is the attribute of man that is essential for race to exist; and because descent is not strictly necessary to the essence of man (Adam was a man despite having no parents, and men still retains their humanity when impotent) it is worthy of being considered in itself, and is itself a proper subcategory of the nature of race.
It is necessary to recognize that all men are united in the common descent of one man (Adam, and further again by way of Noah), and thus all organization of man must assume an intra-species assumption.
Because man can reproduce according to the flesh, he may and ought to be organized according to his flesh.
Due to the reason of man, a categorical organization according to the flesh is not exhaustively meaningful; yet notwithstanding, it is still legitimate in its right place.
Regarding race’s nature in respect to METHOD OF ORGANIZATION; it consists of the TYPE OF CATEGORY and GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF CATEGORIZATION.
The TYPE OF CATEGORY appropriate for race’s natural method of division is according to SECONDARY COMMON DESCENT.
SECONDARY COMMON DESCENT is shown throughout scripture to be a wholesome and useful method of categorizing men, and is demonstrated by many proofs (Genesis 9 and 10, the whole organization of men at the beginning of time in Genesis, the spread of the covenant via a nation in the old covenant, and the promises of the gospel made to nations, most forcefully seen in the Great Commission).
We see from scripture that SECONDARY COMMON DESCENT may overlap vertically (Exodus 1:7, John 8:37), yet not horizontally (Genesis 9:27).
A “mixed-race” individual therefore must be accounted for in either the unit of secondary common descent of his father or of his mother, or be the beginning of a new such unit. To be truly “mixed race” is impossible and a confusion of concept.
The GUIDING PRINCIPLE OF ORGANIZATION is TESTIMONY and REASON.
REASON is a faculty of man, specifically in the soul, but in a living man exercised in conjunction with the body, the brain in particular.
By reason we are able to discern correctly, to correctly discern where the boundaries of secondary common descent should be drawn.
The TESTIMONY of men ultimately determines the boundaries of secondary common descent, because there is no principle in nature which firmly and in itself draws this boundary.
TESTIMONY refers to the self-identification, both explicit and implicit, of membership into a particular unit of secondary common descent. White and Black in America is a basic example of this.
The lack of testimony can also mark the transition of a people from one unit of secondary common descent into another. An example of this is how Whites in America no longer identify as English or German.
This testimony is not to be taken as if each man chooses his unit of secondary common descent, but rather resulting from the testimony of many men together.
REASON must be exercised in discerning testimony, however, to ensure that the TESTIMONY properly aligns with the necessary principles of secondary common descent and common sense (for example, to ensure that such a testimony is not the result of mass delusion, which is a phenomenon all too common with modern communication technology).
The PURPOSE of race is HISTORICAL AND PROVERBIAL MORAL JUDGEMENT.
HISTORICAL JUDGEMENT concerns the adjudication of disputes amongst communities of men, as well as discerning correct and accurate histories and trajectories of those communities.
PROVERBIAL JUDGEMENT concerns proverbial knowledge of men via race.
We see race as a fit category for moral judgement in several portions of scripture, most clearly demonstrated in Titus 1:12. Further examples can be found in Genesis 15:16, Ezekiel 7:24.
This judgement is not meant to be exhaustively applied to every individual within the race (see cases such as Rahab, Ruth, and Uriah); yet notwithstanding, the moral character of a nation can be seen as a proverbial truth for the members within it.
Nor can it be said that these races are being judged merely in accordance with the sins of their magistrates, as 1) Titus 1:12 especially makes clear that the proverbial truth of their nation’s moral character applies at the individual citizen’s level, while 2) even if the sin originated in the magistrate, communities are given tools by God to resist and overthrow such rulers, and they will be judged accordingly, and are indeed in a proverbial manner guilty of the same sin at the individual level, if such mechanisms are not applied, and 3) in regard to point one, we are given no indication that the fact that Cretians are formally incorporated had any meaningful bearing on the proverbial individual description of their sin.
Proverbial truths are a sufficient basis on which to form valid Positive Laws, because to require a positive law to make explicit accounting of every possible aberrant contingency is not only impossible, but also contradictory to the legislative faculty of the magistrate. In like manner, man may make positive rules for his own use according to proverbial knowledge, to do so is wise and in itself is not a sin.
Works Cited:
Table Generated by Grok 3.0 after reading the document above. It also served as a useful tool to bounce ideas off of in the production of this essay, but the ideas expressed are fundamentally my own.