Social Metaphysics: Sex, Gender, and Race

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course examines topics in contemporary social metaphysics, and in particular questions of sex, gender, and race. The kinds of questions on which the course will focus include: What is sex? What is gender? How do these relate to each other? What is sexual orientation? What is the relation between sex, gender, and sexual orientation? How does this relate to transgender? What does it mean for there to be nonbinary genders? What is race? Is race something biological, sociological, or something else entirely? Is transracialism permissible if transgenderism is? We will approach these problems using the contemporary tools in analytic metaphysics, and survey possible philosophical/metaphysical answers to these questions. Readings will be drawn from contemporary work in social metaphysics.