Gender and Philosophical Intuition

39 Pages Posted: 27 Sep 2010

See all articles by Wesley Buckwalter

Wesley Buckwalter

University of Waterloo - Department of Philosophy

Stephen Stich

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: September 26, 2010

Abstract

In recent years, there has been much concern expressed about the under-representation of women in academic philosophy. Our goal in this paper is to call attention to a cluster of phenomena that may be contributing to this gender gap. The findings we review indicate that when women and men with little or no philosophical training are presented with standard philosophical thought experiments, in many cases their intuitions about these cases are significantly different. In section 1 we review some of the data on the under-representation of women in academic philosophy. In section 2 we explain how we use the term 'intuition'. and offer a brief account of how intuitions are invoked in philosophical argument and philosophical theory building. In the third section we set out the evidence for gender differences in philosophical intuition and mention some evidence about gender differences in decisions and behaviors that are (or should be) of considerable interest to philosophers. In the fourth section, our focus changes from facts to hypotheses. In that section we explain how differences in philosophical intuition might be an important part of the explanation for the gender gap in philosophy. The fifth section is a brief conclusion.

Keywords: Gender, Intuitions, Philosophical Methodology, Philosophical Education

Suggested Citation

Buckwalter, Wesley and Stich, Stephen, Gender and Philosophical Intuition (September 26, 2010). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1683066 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1683066

Wesley Buckwalter (Contact Author)

University of Waterloo - Department of Philosophy ( email )

200 University Avenue West
Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1
Canada

Stephen Stich

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey ( email )

New Brunswick, NJ 08901
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~stich/

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