Talia Mae Bettcher and Tomas Bogardus join me to debate the question, "What is a woman?". Is gender biologically grounded, socially constructed, or something else entirely? If you're looking for a cordial and substantive exchange from two thinkers who fundamentally disagree on these issues, look no further.

Video of this interview is available on YouTube.

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EPISODE CHAPTERS

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:17 Bogardus opening statement

00:02:03 Dictionaries and ordinary usage

00:03:41 The ambiguity view

00:07:09 The resistant concept of woman

00:08:12 Circularity and self-identification

00:11:23 The relevance objection to ambiguity

00:13:47 Non-human men and women

00:16:17 Bettcher opening statement

00:18:29 Woman as a philosophical question

00:19:44 Folk concepts and biological definitions

00:22:13 Folk concepts vs. theoretical concepts

00:24:45 Adult, human, and female

00:28:14 Open discussion begins

00:28:57 Bettcher on the ambiguity thesis

00:30:28 Family resemblance and trans womanhood

00:35:16 Political concepts and same-sex marriage

00:52:25 Are folk concepts biological?

00:57:47 Souls, bodies, and female identity

01:04:31 Twin Earth, Superman, and non-human men

01:13:13 Stone lions, Batman, and conceptual analysis

01:26:44 The husbandry argument

01:29:44 Sex, function, and biology

01:34:35 Why the question matters

01:39:44 Closing statements