Gender, Politics and Philosophy

In this class we’ll read classic and contemporary texts in the philosophy of gender that examine questions such as the following. What exactly is gender? And what is sex? What does it mean to be a man or a woman? Are these natural or social kinds—that is, do these words refer to phenomena that humans have discovered or to ones they’ve created? Should we continue to group all human beings into just two sex/gender categories—or should we instead expand the number of categories we use? Or should we stop classifying humans by sex and gender altogether? And who should have the authority to make these kinds of decisions? We will frequently ask how these conceptual matters bear on how we should live, how we should relate to others, and how we should organize social and political life. Readings will include works by authors such as Simone de Beauvoir, Iris Marion Young, Angela Davis, Nancy Fraser, Sally Haslanger, Sandra Bartky, Patricia Hill Collins, Serene Khader and Katharine Jenkins. (A)