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Philosophy, logic, and the search for trans womanhood
As a social philosopher it is interesting to see the amount of logic thrown at what constitutes a woman, especially when that logic is used to deduce biological sex as the root of what a woman is in essence. Frank Ramsey and Betrand Russell developed logical philosophy as a 20th Century approach for solving life’s issues, something which Ludwig Wittgenstein deconstructed, pointing to the fact that all logical arguments can be reduced down to the human conception of the elements within the logic puzzle. Wittgenstein’s other great observation is that for communication to happen we need to find common ground and agreement with respects to the labels we use, though as with all translational processes there will always be a better translation. It in this translational process of understanding womanhood that biases and self-conception of labels brushes up against logic, namely the human condition cannot be reduced to 1+1 because each 1 is framed differently by each person doing the logic calculation.
However, refuting “logic” is never enough, especially when the logical argument itself is predicated on ideology and entrenched belief structures. If womanhood is rooted in pure biology, namely the large gamete producer, womb bearer, and child incubator, what of those women who lack any or all of that? Under the biological logic they would be reduced to an…
