Or how a label like ‘human biological sex’ is treated as if it is a true binary distinction that carves reality at the joints and exerts magical causal power over the characteristics of humans, when it is really a fuzzy dividing ‘line’ in the space of possible or actual humans, the validity of which can only be granted by how well it summarises the characteristics.
I don’t see how sex doesn’t carve reality at the joints. In the space of actually really-existing humans it’s a pretty sharp boundary and summarizes a lot of characteristics extremely well. It might not do so well in the space of possible humans, but why does that matter? The process by which possible humans become instantiated isn’t manna from heaven—it has a causal structure that depends on the existence of sex.
I agree it is a pretty sharp boundary, for all the obvious evolutionary reasons—nevertheless, there are a significant number of actual really-existing humans who are intersex/transgender. This is also not too surprising, given that evolution is a messy process. In addition to the causal structure of sexual selection and the evolution of humans, there are also causal structures in how sex is implemented, and in some cases, it can be useful to distinguish based on these instead.
For example, you could distinguish between karyotype (XX, XY but also XYY, XXY, XXX, X0 and several others), genotype (e.g. mutations on SRY or AR genes), and phenotypes, like reproductive organs, hormonal levels, various secondary sexual characteristics (e.g. breasts, skin texture, bone density, facial structure, fat distribution, digit ratio) , mental/personality differences (like sexuality, dominance, spatial orientation reasoning, nurturing personality, grey/white matter ratio, risk aversion), etc…
Thanks. When I was thinking about this post and considered sex as an example, I had intended to elaborate by saying how it could e.g. cause counterproductive attitudes to intersex people, and that these attitudes would update slowly due to the binary view of sex being very strongly trained into the way we think. I just outright forgot to put that in! I endorse Adele’s response.
I don’t see how sex doesn’t carve reality at the joints. In the space of actually really-existing humans it’s a pretty sharp boundary and summarizes a lot of characteristics extremely well. It might not do so well in the space of possible humans, but why does that matter? The process by which possible humans become instantiated isn’t manna from heaven—it has a causal structure that depends on the existence of sex.
I agree it is a pretty sharp boundary, for all the obvious evolutionary reasons—nevertheless, there are a significant number of actual really-existing humans who are intersex/transgender. This is also not too surprising, given that evolution is a messy process. In addition to the causal structure of sexual selection and the evolution of humans, there are also causal structures in how sex is implemented, and in some cases, it can be useful to distinguish based on these instead.
For example, you could distinguish between karyotype (XX, XY but also XYY, XXY, XXX, X0 and several others), genotype (e.g. mutations on SRY or AR genes), and phenotypes, like reproductive organs, hormonal levels, various secondary sexual characteristics (e.g. breasts, skin texture, bone density, facial structure, fat distribution, digit ratio) , mental/personality differences (like sexuality, dominance, spatial orientation reasoning, nurturing personality, grey/white matter ratio, risk aversion), etc…
Thanks. When I was thinking about this post and considered sex as an example, I had intended to elaborate by saying how it could e.g. cause counterproductive attitudes to intersex people, and that these attitudes would update slowly due to the binary view of sex being very strongly trained into the way we think. I just outright forgot to put that in! I endorse Adele’s response.