Montag, 29. April 2019 - 17:00
Charlotte Witt: What is Gender Essentialism?
Ringvorlesung im Sommersemester 2019: Contemporary Approaches to Feminist Philosophy
Im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung werden wichtige Diskussionen aus der jüngeren feministischen Philosophie nach Frankfurt gebracht. Die Ringvorlesung ist offen für alle Interessierten. Eine Anmeldung ist nicht erforderlich.
"What is Gender Essentialism?"
Charlotte Witt (University of New Hampshire)
Gender essentialism is a controversial topic in feminist theory. But what is meant by gender essentialism? I begin by distinguishing two types of essentialism: kind essentialism and uniessentialism. The two essentialisms address different questions rather than supplying different answers to the same question. Kind essentialism addresses the issue of the classification of individuals into kinds. For example, the classification of persons into gender kinds (women, men, genderqueer). Uniessentialism addresses an entirely different issue, which is the metaphysical question of what grounds the unity of individuals with parts. I think that our gender is the principle of unity of our social agency and I explain why this idea is important for feminist theorizing today.
Veranstalter:
Institut für Philosophie der Goethe-Universität in Kooperation mit dem Exzellenzcluster "Die Herausbildung normativer Ordnungen" und dem Cornelia Goethe Centrum für Frauenstudien und die Erforschung der Geschlechterverhältnisse