Gender Terms and Normative Significance

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.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Philosophy

Department dc:contributor.department

Philosophy

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Adine, Soheil

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Hoek, Daniel

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Sud, Rohan
• Corredor, Mercedes Maria

• Gender
• Verbal Disputes
• Normative Significance
• Choice Situations

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:40273

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/118992