black_robin's Journal

Ir 2023. gads un bioloģija ir kļuvusi par apšaubāmu fikciju. BBC question time Skotu nacionālās partijas deputāte nu nekādi nevar atbildēt uz jautājumu vai konkrēts izvarotājs ir vīrietis vai sieviete.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v61Ygtk0j74

...

"..it follows from the logic of Butler's worldview not only that there are not two naturally pre-given, stable biological sexes, but also that there are no pre-given facts about natural selection. There is no sexual reproduction. There are no pre-given chemical elements or biological species. There is no climate change, at least not as commonly understood. There are no molecules, atoms or quarks. There are no viruses and no bacteria; no successful drugs nor placebos. talking about oxygen as a cause of combustion is ultimately no more rationally justified than talking about the eighteenth-century concept of phlogiston (which was thought to reside in every flammable substance and to be released as it burned). Talking about neurons as causes of behaviour is neither more nor less accurate, ultimately, than talking about bodily 'humours'. Creationism is neither worse nor better a theory than Darwinism. There is no ahistorical, non-relative truth, in fact, nor 'accurate' scientific theory or representation.

I might be told, in response to the above précis, that I've got it wrong: in fact, there is still some coherent way in which, within the Butlerian picture, all of these things can be said 'really' to exist, whilst also understood as 'socially' and 'linguistically' constructed. In which case: phew, what a relief; in that case can we have the sexes back too, please?

The most plausible versions of social constructionism about science are not sceptical about the existence, full stop, of the things they conclude are socially constructed. A philosopher Ian Hacking says of those who claim airplanes are 'socially constructed': they still 'expect airplanes to get you there, and know that science, technology, and enterprise are essential for air travel'. But even arch social constructionists about science, Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar, say they do 'not wish to say that facts do not exist not that there is no such thing as reality'. Butler's social constructionism about sex is not like this. She apparently supposes she has debunked the concepts of binary sex, specifically. And yet she does so on general grounds that would logically extend this scepticism, completely implausibly, to any scientific grouping whatsoever.

Kathleen Stock, Material Girls (2021)

Autore Kathleen Stock bija filozofijas profesore Saseksas Universitātē, kur zaudēja darbu savu skandalozo uzskatu dēļ. Viņa uzskata, ka nav iespējams mainīt savu bioloģisko dzimumu, ka vīrieši nevar būt lesbietes (viņa pati ir lesbiete) utml. mumbo jumbo.