Gender Terms and Normative Significance
| dc.contributor.author | Adine, Soheil | en |
| dc.contributor.committeechair | Hoek, Daniel | en |
| dc.contributor.committeemember | Sud, Rohan | en |
| dc.contributor.committeemember | Corredor, Mercedes Maria | en |
| dc.contributor.department | Philosophy | en |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-05-16T08:00:46Z | en |
| dc.date.available | 2024-05-16T08:00:46Z | en |
| dc.date.issued | 2024-05-15 | en |
| dc.description.abstract | 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. | en |
| dc.description.abstractgeneral | 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. | en |
| dc.description.degree | Master of Arts | en |
| dc.format.medium | ETD | en |
| dc.identifier.other | vt_gsexam:40273 | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10919/118992 | en |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.publisher | Virginia Tech | en |
| dc.rights | In Copyright | en |
| dc.rights.uri | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ | en |
| dc.subject | Gender | en |
| dc.subject | Verbal Disputes | en |
| dc.subject | Normative Significance | en |
| dc.subject | Choice Situations | en |
| dc.title | Gender Terms and Normative Significance | en |
| dc.type | Thesis | en |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Philosophy | en |
| thesis.degree.grantor | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | en |
| thesis.degree.level | masters | en |
| thesis.degree.name | Master of Arts | en |
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