Posted by strikeout26 on 6/4/2022 11:33:00 PM (view original):
You most certainly can come to absolute conclusions on those questions. They’re objective and most certainly scientific. They have become philosophical as a matter of convenience. Not to break this down by party lines, but since I wasn’t the one who divided it politically, I’ll run with it; the left values kindness over truth. They see it as unkind to tell someone “I know you think you’re a woman, but you’re not.” Like I told Dino, we don’t do this with any other immutable trait. I’m not sure why sex or gender get a pass. If we are talking to someone that we love that thinks they’re a cat, we gently advise mental care and the doctor doesn’t recommend to them that they transition to being a cat. If a white person identifies as black, they’re ostracized on social media and told that they are appropriating culture. Remember Rachel Dolezal.
As far as a fetus being a human, that’s objective and scientific as well. Once again, like I told Dino, I can give you a bunch of scientific reasons as to why it’s a human life. I would wager that you can’t give me one as to why it’s not. And since, undeniably, it’s a human life, it has personhood. We don’t pick and choose which humans have personhood.
As a disclaimer, I’m not exactly sure what you mean by personhood. I’m kind of guessing at what you mean.
There's a wide variety of differences between species and race vs gender. Most importantly, there really isn't such a thing as species dysphoria or racial dysphoria. Again, I'm most worried about outcomes, and it really seems like gender transition is an effective method of relieving dysphoria. Just telling someone that they're not trans doesn't work. Gender is distinct from sex. When I interact with someone, I'm more concerned with their presentation than their chromosomes or genitals.
One of my friends is a trans guy, and he's obviously a guy. No one would interact with him and think that he's a woman, and in fact many are surprised when they find out that he's trans. He by and large lives a male experience, and that's really good. His life wouldn't be nearly as fruitful if he wasn't allowed to be on testosterone and have his body match his mind. I don't think just telling him "you're not a guy" is an effective solution here.
So in terms of utility, when we're constructing definitions, I just don't buy one that excludes him from the "man" category, since in essentially any way that matters, he's a guy. Like, if you construct a definition of gender that puts him under the same social category as my girlfriend, I really don't think there's much utility to that definition. It's just not how we interact with people in the real world.
Re the abortion conversation, when I say "personhood," I mean "human thing that's worthy of moral consideration." A braindead adult is an alive human, but we might not grant them moral consideration at the same level as a conscious adult human. The question of whether an early fetus and adult person are worthy of the same level of moral consideration is a legitimate one.
Again, I'm really not interested in the abortion debate. It gets into a ton of philosophical discussions that frankly I'm not prepared to have, especially because I don't have a super strong opinion. I think both sides have valid concerns, and frankly, I don't think any party has rhetoric on the issue that matches my current opinion.