Phil. 3305 Philosophy and Gender: Intersectionality/Resemblance Nominalism

ANNOUNCEMENTS

talk today
RR for next time
accommodations
debates--will discuss and assign next Wednesday
no class Oct. 11

CRENSHAW ON INTERSECTIONALITY (REVIEW)

NATALIE STOLJAR: "DIFFERENT WOMEN"

Argues for: 1. gender nominalism, 2. resemblance nominalism (about gender), 3. cluster theory (about gender)

Argues against: 1. gender universals, 2. realism (about gender), 3. kind essentialism

TERMINOLOGY

Homogeneous--unified, similar, like the group of objects below

Universal--the something they have in common, the greenness they share

Realist--believes that there are such universals

Total Nominalist--believes there are no universals uniting this group, believes these items are united in name only (NOMEN means name), believes there are no universals uniting any group

Partial Nominalist--believes there are no universals in many cases where you might expect them. Stoljar is a partial nominalist.

Heterogenous -- Like the group below. Nominalism seems to be the right view about this group. The group is unified in name only ("things in someone's purse").

Things in someone's purse

Somewhat heterogeneous -- These people have one sperm donor and different mothers. It's not a totally heterogeneous group but not as homogeneous as the group of green objects.

Resemblance nominalism-- There is no universal in this case--nothing all the siblings have in common. Yet there are resemblances that ought to be noticed and explained. (This example literally involve visual resemblances but other cases don't. For example, Stoljar's game example.)

Cluster concept-- A list of features that explains the resemblance. The resemblance is based on each person having "enough" features from a list like this: