Frameworks, relativism, social facts and social constructions · avoid ethnocentrism. Methodological relativism with regard to knowledge: Our convictions dependent on historical and

Frameworks, relativism, social facts and social constructions

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986)

Pyrrhus et Cinéas, 1944

Pour une morale de l’ambiguïté, 1947 (“The Ethics of Ambiguity”)

Le Deuxième Sexe, 1949 (The Second Sex, 2011)

Privilèges/Faut-il brûler Sade?(“Must We Burn Sade?”)1955/1972

Philosophical Writings, 2004Political Writings, 2012

The subject is embodied and situated

The concrete human being (existence)

Situation

• in space• in time• in society• in culture• in history, etc.

Existence is characterised by ambiguity

immanence ßà transcendence

facticity ßà freedom

situation ßà project

Our relation to other people: Freedom can be restricted by others, but it is also through our working in behalf of other people’s freedom that I can be truly free myself.

human subject à the Other

(man) woman(master) slave(the white person) ”the Negro”(the Christian) the Jew(the colonizer) the native (l’indigène)(the Jewish-Christian) the Muslim(the heterosexual) the homosexual

etc.

The human being constitutes itself as such through exclusions.

Woman is the absolutely Other

She is the negative,the inessential downside of the human being/man/the subject,a deviation, etc.

What distinguishes the relation between man and woman from other asymmetrical relations?

No historical explanation to the subordination of women: an oppression without real cause.

To a greater degree than man, woman is “a slave to the species”.

Pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding etc. are natural functions, not activities: an activity involves committing oneself in a project, thereby transcending the given situation.

Woman is locked up in immanence.

Biological ”facts”

have no meaning in

themselves,

they are always

given in a cultural

situation.

Woman, gender

is a “becoming”

(un devenir).

Judith Butler (1956–)

sex ßà gender

gender a socialconstruction

sex biological?

anatomy?genes?hormones?

Butler:

”Sex” is itself

a social

construction,

a norm.

The heterosexual matrix:

The gender categories are binary, stable and hierarchically ordered.

The gender categories are produced as something natural, biologically given, through exclusion of those who don’t fit.

”The other” for Butler is the homosexual, transgender person, etc.

Compulsory heterosexuality constitutes the very

intelligibility of a person.

Gender is performatively constructed

Linguistic monism?

Performative speech acts

• J.L. Austin: e.g. “I now pronounce you man and wife.”“I bet you sixpence it will rain tomorrow.”

• Butler: All forms of discourse.

E.g. gay bashing

Beauvoir:

Gender is a becoming (”un devenir”)

Butler:

“Gender is the repeated stylization of the body a set of repeated acts within a highly rigid regulatory frame that congeal over time to produce the appearance of substance, of a natural sort of being.” (Gender Trouble)

”Sexual difference, however, is never simply a function of material differences which are not in some way both marked and formed by discursive practices. Further, to claim that sexual differences are indissociable from discursive demarcations is not the same as claiming that discourse causes sexual difference.”

(Bodies that Matter)

Produce gender trouble –perform gender in new ways

Why does money have value?

Brute (natural) facts

Social facts

Individual intentionality

Thinking, aiming, feeling etc. in terms of I.

Collective intentionality

Thinking, aiming, feeling etc. in terms of we.

Regulative rules

Regulate activities that exist independently of the rules.

Constitutive rules

Constitute the very activity: The activity consists in acting according to the rule.

New York City, 1932

Social facts:

• their existence depends upon what people believe about them and that people act according to constitutive rules

• ex. games, money

A natural fact counts as a social fact in certain circumstances.

• social facts that masquerade as natural facts (Carlshamre)• are self-reflexive – they constitute identities functioning as norms• ex. sex, gender, certain illnesses, race

A social fact that have been reified through identification, habituation and exclusion of those who don’t fit.

Social constructions:

What kind of social facts and social constructions can you find within your own discipline?

Does the assumption of such social construction imply relativism?

Sociological notion of knowledge:

• When studying the manner that epistemic categories appear against the backdrop of certain social structures.

• Describes the deep-rooted convictions and theories cherished by people in a certain culture.

Relativism

Certain phenomena – convictions, evidence, knowledge, truth, values etc. – dependent on subject, language, culture, epoch, paradigm, etc.

• Methodological or descriptive relativism, e.g. in anthropology (cf. sociological notion of knowledge):

üCan apply to justification of knowledge as well as to values.

üThe purpose is to attain objectivity and avoid ethnocentrism.

Methodological relativism with regard to knowledge:

Our convictions dependent on historical and cultural context. For this reason, people of a certain culture or epoch can be justified in entertaining beliefs that people of another culture or epoch are justified in denying.

Methodological relativism with regard to values:

Our ethical convictions tend to be connected with the culture and society we are raised in. People of a certain culture or epoch can consider actions as morally right that people of another culture or epoch consider morally wrong.

• Philosophical or normative relativism:

ü Value relativism – an action that is morally right in one culture/epoch can be morally wrong in another.

ü Ontological relativism – statements that aretrue in one culture/epoch can be false in another.

Cf. methodological relativism:ü What is considered morally good in one culture/epoch

can be considered morally wrong in another.ü People of one culture/epoch can be justified in the

belief that statements are true that people of another culture/epoch are justified in denying.

Philosophical/normative relativism

Value relativism• We cannot judge the moral convictions of other cultures/epochs.

What is morally right in one culture/epoch is wrong in another culture/epoch.

Ø Problematic since the meaning of ”morally right” seems stronger and judgements of value often depend on convictions based on facts.

Ø E. g. ”Girls should not get higher education” (their brains are not suited for too much study)

Ontological relativism• Statements that are true in one culture/epoch can be false in

another.Ø What does ”truth” mean here? Results in contradictions.Ø E. g. the theory of evolution is true in our culture but is false

strongly religious societies.

Grading scale for assignments (max. 18 points)

A 17B 14C 11D 8E 6

In addition, you must have at least 2 points per assignment; if not, the assignment must be rewritten irrespective of the grand total of points.