From: M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2022 06:27:13 +0000 (-0800) Subject: check in X-Git-Url: http://534655.efjtl6rk.asia/source?a=commitdiff_plain;h=b6e3c0277b93e85eef0fd5ce3b5310a3b3e2a66d;p=Ultimately_Untrue_Thought.git check in --- diff --git a/content/drafts/challenges-to-yudkowskys-pronoun-reform-proposal.md b/content/drafts/challenges-to-yudkowskys-pronoun-reform-proposal.md index 64dd2fd..5c82382 100644 --- a/content/drafts/challenges-to-yudkowskys-pronoun-reform-proposal.md +++ b/content/drafts/challenges-to-yudkowskys-pronoun-reform-proposal.md @@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ Status: draft > > —["The Lie" by Walter Raleigh](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/trb9HPWFk8Gy9MBdN/less-wrong-poetry-corner-walter-raleigh-s-the-lie) -### Summary +### Summary of Claims * In a February 2021 Facebook post, Eliezer Yudkowsky inveighs against English's system of singular third-person pronouns: as a matter of clean language design, English's lack of a gender-neutral singular third-person pronoun is a serious flaw: you shouldn't be required to commit to a stance on what sex someone is in order to say a grammatical sentence about her or him. @@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ Status: draft * **The "meaning" of language isn't some epiphenominal extraphysical fact that can be declared or ascertained separately from common usage.** The word "dog" means what it does _because_ English speakers use the word that way; if you wanted "dog" to mean something different, you'd need to change the way English speakers behave. Thus, **circularly redefining _he_ and _she_ as purportedly referring to pronoun preferences rather than sex doesn't work, if people are still in practice choosing pronouns on the basis of perceived sex.** - * **Given that _she_ and _he_ do in fact convey sex category information to English speakers, some speakers might perceive an interest in resisting pressure to use pronouns in a way that contradicts their perception of what sex people are.** This does _not_ constitute a philosophical committment that pronouns can be "lies." + * **Given that _she_ and _he_ do in fact convey sex category information to English speakers, some speakers might perceive an interest in resisting pressure to use pronouns in a way that contradicts their perception of what sex people are.** This does _not_ constitute a philosophical committment that pronouns can be "lies" as such. * In the comments of the Facebook post, Yudkowsky seemingly denies that pronouns convey sex category information to native English speakers, claiming, "I do not know what it feels like from the inside to feel like a pronoun is attached to something in your head much more firmly than 'doesn't look like an Oliver' is attached to something in your head." Without alleging any conscious intent to deceive on Yudkowsky's part, **this self-report is not plausible, as evidenced by previous writings by Yudkowsky that treat sex and pronouns as synonymous.** diff --git a/notes/notes.txt b/notes/notes.txt index ecc2fcd..c29c500 100644 --- a/notes/notes.txt +++ b/notes/notes.txt @@ -2968,3 +2968,7 @@ https://ovarit.com/o/GenderCritical/61883/wear-what-you-want-why-i-ve-changed-my > They only wear our clothing because they haven't found a way to wear our skin yet. https://mrwinstonmarshall.medium.com/why-im-leaving-mumford-sons-e6e731bbc255 + +John Stuart Mill also believed that the best people are androgynous: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00048402.1986.9755426?journalCode=rajp20 + +Blogroll maybe? https://strigoi.substack.com/p/a-few-notes-on-agp