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What Are We Talking About? The Semantics and Politics of Social Kinds
- Hypatia
- Indiana University Press
- Volume 20, Number 4, Fall 2005
- pp. 10-26
- 10.1353/hyp.2005.0126
- Article
- Additional Information
Theorists analyzing the concepts of race and gender disagree over whether the terms refer to natural kinds, social kinds, or nothing at all. The question arises: what do we mean by the terms? It is usually assumed that ordinary intuitions of native speakers are definitive. However, I argue that contemporary semantic externalism can usefully combine with insights from Foucauldian genealogy to challenge mainstream methods of analysis and lend credibility to social constructionist projects.