Perhaps this says more about me than other people, but when you wrote ‘womanly understanding’, I expected it to immediately be broken in some sort of backstabbing way or catfight...
And a gentleman’s agreement would be broken and “resolved” through the gentlemanly art of fisticuffs — in other words, it really hinges on mutual threat of violence rather than on mutual recognition of benefit?
How about we don’t gender it at all? If what you want to say is that a particular agreement optimizes for mutual benefit and against various sorts of defection, just say so. We know some game theory around here; and we know that it is frequently applicable to the moral decisions of daily life. No need to drag (ha ha) gender into it at all.
And a gentleman’s agreement would be broken and “resolved” through the gentlemanly art of fisticuffs — in other words, it really hinges on mutual threat of violence rather than on mutual recognition of benefit?
No. The agreement is based on the mutual recognition of benefit. The expectation that each will honor the agreement if made relies on the threat of mutual violence. If there wasn’t an expectation of benefit they would not enter into an agreement. (The agreement obliges them to either do something or experience negative consequences so if the agreement offered no expectation of benefit to compensate it would be a bad decision.)
Perhaps this says more about me than other people, but when you wrote ‘womanly understanding’, I expected it to immediately be broken in some sort of backstabbing way or catfight...
And a gentleman’s agreement would be broken and “resolved” through the gentlemanly art of fisticuffs — in other words, it really hinges on mutual threat of violence rather than on mutual recognition of benefit?
How about we don’t gender it at all? If what you want to say is that a particular agreement optimizes for mutual benefit and against various sorts of defection, just say so. We know some game theory around here; and we know that it is frequently applicable to the moral decisions of daily life. No need to drag (ha ha) gender into it at all.
No. The agreement is based on the mutual recognition of benefit. The expectation that each will honor the agreement if made relies on the threat of mutual violence. If there wasn’t an expectation of benefit they would not enter into an agreement. (The agreement obliges them to either do something or experience negative consequences so if the agreement offered no expectation of benefit to compensate it would be a bad decision.)
I did not, and didn’t realize that example was a cliche. I changed the example to be contrary to that expectation.