In this paper I will address a puzzle about normative significance of gender terms. On the one hand, gender is tied to many normative judgments, and questions about gender make a difference in what one should do. On the other hand, everyday use of gender terms is in flux, and there is not a consensus among language speakers about their meaning. So, questions involving gender terms are in an important sense verbal and, thus, insubstantial. If there are multiple interpretations of a gender term, questions involving them would merely leave us in a dilemma and answering them cannot provide normative guidance. After exploring the puzzle that arises from this tension, I will discuss two possible solutions to it. / Master of Arts / Gender is a normative notion: Questions involving gender terms, such as "woman", guide one's actions and influence decision-making in everyday life situations. However, gender terms can carry multiple meanings in different contexts. This feature of these terms would make questions about them particularly hard to answer: There are situations where two opposing answers to the question are equally permissible. But that raises a tension: How can a question that does not have a unique answer make a difference in what should be done in any situation? In this paper I will address a puzzle that arises from this tension and will discuss two potential solutions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/118992 |
| Date | 15 May 2024 |
| Creators | Adine, Soheil |
| Contributors | Philosophy, Hoek, Daniel, Sud, Rohan, Corredor, Mercedes Maria |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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