The idea of race has played a crucial role in the modern world. It is taken for granted by most of us. These ideas have been used to legitimate oppression and atrocity, such as slavery, colonialism, and genocide, and they continue to promote injustice today. This suggests that we should question our ideas about race. In this course, we will take a deep journey into the history and dynamics of racial thinking, asking such questions as: Where did the idea of race come from? When did it arise, and what function does it serve? Do human races really exist, or are they pure fiction, and if they do exist, what kind of things are they?  And what about racism? Can we endorse race without being racist, or is racism built into the very idea of race? We will engage with texts from a variety of disciplines, including history, anthropology, biology, psychology, and philosophy, to address these momentous concerns.