Can one know what it is like to be a man? Or what it is like to be a woman? How, if one can have no more than one's own experiences? — Banno
The law of identity is better phrased as every thing is the same as itself. that is,
U(x)(x=x)
were x is an individual, not a proposition.
But "Trump is President" is represented as P(t), a predicate relation.
In English both relationships are parsed using "is". The logical parsing shows that the English parsing is ambiguous.
So Trump is Trump, and unfortunately Trump is also the President. The first "is" is the "is" of identity; the second, the "is" of predication. — Banno
That's a well worn idea. — frank
Can one know what it is like to be a man? Or what it is like to be a woman? How, if one can have no more than one's own experiences? — Banno
Living with Mrs Un has obliged me to become aware of being white, and aware that the normality of whiteness, the unawareness of the identity is a privilege of whiteness in the culture. A non-white person simply cannot walk down the street unaware of their non-whiteness; it impinges itself by way of 'the look', which roughly translates as "who do you think you are?" It is a question that it is a privilege not to be forced to confront. Not to confront it is to feel at home. — unenlightened
Living with Mrs Un has obliged me to become aware of being white, and aware that the normality of whiteness, the unawareness of the identity is a privilege of whiteness in the culture. A non-white person simply cannot walk down the street unaware of their non-whiteness; it impinges itself by way of 'the look', which roughly translates as "who do you think you are?" It is a question that it is a privilege not to be forced to confront. Not to confront it is to feel at home. — unenlightened
Is it rather the case that one can have a preference for taking on the roll of a man, or the roll of a woman, despite one's physique? — Banno
Can one know what it is like to be a man? Or what it is like to be a woman? How, if one can have no more than one's own experiences? — Banno
Gender identity in transgender folk is described as a conflict between one's internal sense of being male or female, and one's physical characteristics — Banno
I met and have worked with some gay men. (Clearly we all have, but this was in an organization concerned with violence, and their gayness was a kind of job qualification.) I asked them to define homosexuality - what "gay" is. They couldn't do it, and they acknowledged that it couldn't be done. That is, is there a sine qua non either of being or not being gay, or with respect to any aspect of sexuality? — tim wood
I find that ridiculous, as, I can say with confidence, would many others, whether gay, straight, or other. Clearly there is meaning enough to come up with at least a working definition. — Sapientia
Great. Now go back and read my post. Got it? — tim wood
Now you tell me what, if anything, gay is. Keep in mind the point here is not a "working definition," but a clear statement as to what it is, perhaps that could stand as a go-no-go test. Bitter Crank, whom I am not about to gainsay on this topic, has half of it nailed, imo: a gay person knows that he is gay. Which is good, but it's not an answer to the question. That is, educate or learn. — tim wood
You're also not a girl (I assume). There certainly are more differences between bats and humans than there are between boys and girls, but they're still different. The differences are physical as well as social. There certainly is a "girl role" that is "imposed" on girls, but that role is part of their identity. A boy who'd like to live in that role will not have had the same experiences as the girl.I would say the reason I don't know what it is like to be a bat is because I am not a bat — Moliere
Same here. I wonder if we experienced it the same way, though. Everyone experiences things based on who and what they are, and on their environment.I know what it is like to be poor because I have been poor.
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