Subject-Contextualism and the Meaning of Gender Terms
Keywords:
gender terms, semantics, trans women, contextualism, attributor-contextualismAbstract
In this paper, I engage with a recent contextualist account of gender terms (particularly, “woman”) proposed by Díaz-León, E. 2016. “Woman as a Politically Significant Term: A Solution to the Puzzle.” Hypatia 31 (2): 245–58. Díaz-León’s main aim is to improve both on previous contextualist and non-contextualist views and solve a certain puzzle for feminists. Central to this task is putting forward a view that allows trans women who did not undergo gender-affirming medical procedures to use the gender terms of their choice to self-identify. My goal is to investigate Díaz-León’s proposal, point out (what I take to be) several shortcomings of the view and discuss possible replies on her part.
References
Ayala, S., and N. Vasilyeva. 2015. “Extended Sex: An Account of Sex for a More Just Society.” Hypatia 30 (4): 725–42, https://doi.org/10.1111/hypa.12180.
Barnes, E. 2019. “Gender and Gender Terms.” Noûs, https://doi.org/10.1111/nous.12279.
Bettcher, T. M. 2009. “Trans Identities and First-Person Authority.” In “You’ve Changed”: Sex Reassignment and Personal Identity, edited by L. Shrage, 98–120. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Bettcher, T. M. 2017. “Trans Feminism: Recent Philosophical Developments.” Philosophy Compass 12 (11), https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12438.
Buss, S. 2018. “Personal Autonomy.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by E. Zalta. Spring 2018 Edition. Also available at https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2018/entries/personal-autonomy
Davies, A., L. Kaplinski, and M. Lepamets. 2019. “Meta-Semantic Moral Encroachment: Some Experimental Evidence.” Studia Philosophica Estonica 12: 7–33.
DeRose, K. 1992. “Contextualism and Knowledge Attributions.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 52 (3): 913–29, https://doi.org/10.2307/2107917.
Díaz-León, E. 2016. “Woman as a Politically Significant Term: A Solution to the Puzzle.” Hypatia 31 (2): 245–58. https://doi.org/10.1111/hypa.12234
Enoch, D. 2011. Taking Morality Seriously: A Defense of Robust Realism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199579969.001.0001
Gauker, C. 2008. “Zero Tolerance for Pragmatics.” Synthese 165 (3): 359–71, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-007-9189-2.
Haslanger, S. 2000. “Gender and Race: (What) are They? (What) do we Want Them to be?.” Nous 34 (1): 31–55, https://doi.org/10.1111/0029-4624.00201.
Jenkins, K. 2016. “Amelioration and Inclusion: Gender Identity and the concept of woman.” Ethics 126 (2): 394–421, https://doi.org/10.1086/683535.
Kapusta, S. J. 2016. “Misgendering and Its Moral Contestability.” Hypatia 31 (3): 502–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/hypa.12259
Laskowski, N. G. 2020. “Moral Constraints on Gender Concepts.” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 23 (1): 39–51, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-020-10060-9.
McGowan, M. K. 2019. Just Words. On Speech and Hidden Harm. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198829706.001.0001
Mikkola, M. 2019. “Feminist Perspectives on Sex and Gender.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by E. Zalta. Fall 2019 Edition. Also available at https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2019/entries/feminism-gender
Popa-Wyatt, M., and J. L. Wyatt. 2018. “Slurs, Roles and Power.” Philosophical Studies 175: 2879–906, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-017-0986-2.
Saul, J. 2012. “Politically Significant Terms and Philosophy of Language: Methodological Issues.” In Out from the Shadows: Analytical Feminist Contributions to Traditional Philosophy, edited by Sharon L. Crasnow, and Anita M. Superson, 197–216. Oxford: Oxford University Pressbook-chapter. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199855469.003.0009
Saul, J., and E. Díaz-León. 2018. “Feminist Philosophy of Language.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by E. Zalta. Fall 2018 edition. Also available at https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/feminism-language
Stoljar, N. 2018. “Feminist Perspectives on Autonomy.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by E. Zalta. Winter 2018 Edition. Also available at https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2018/entries/feminism-autonomy
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
