Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T05:03:14.341Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What Is Trans Philosophy?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Talia Mae Bettcher
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this article, I explore the question “What is trans philosophy?” by viewing trans philosophy as a contribution to the field of trans studies. This requires positioning the question vis à vis Judith Butler's notion of philosophy's Other (that is, the philosophical work done outside of the boundaries of professional philosophy), as trans studies has largely grown from this Other. It also requires taking seriously Susan Stryker's distinction between the mere study of trans phenomena and trans studies as the coming to academic voice of trans people. Finally, it requires thinking about the types of questions that emerge when philosophy is placed within a multidisciplinary context: (1) What does philosophy have to offer? (2) Given that philosophy typically does not use data, what grounds philosophical claims about the world? (3) What is the relation between philosophy and “the literature”? In attempting to answer these questions, I examine the notion of philosophical perplexity and the relation of philosophy to “the everyday.” Rather than guiding us to perplexity, I argue, trans philosophy attempts to illuminate trans experiences in an everyday that is confusing and hostile. Alternative socialities are required, I argue, in order to make trans philosophy possible.

Type
Articles
Information
Hypatia , Volume 34 , Issue 4 , Fall 2019 , pp. 644 - 667
Copyright
Copyright © 2019, Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anzaldúa, Gloria. 1987. Borderlands/la frontera: The new mestiza. San Francisco: Spinsters/ Aunt Lute.Google Scholar
Bettcher, Talia Mae. 2015. Other “worldly” philosophy. Philosopher. https://politicalphilosopher.net/2015/08/16/featured-philosop-her-talia-bettcher/.Google Scholar
Bettcher, Talia Mae. 2017. Through the looking glass: Transgender theory meets feminist philosophy. In Routledge handbook of feminist philosophy, ed. Garry, Ann, Khader, Serene, and Stone, Allison. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bettcher, Talia Mae. 2018. When tables speak: On the existence of trans philosophy. Daily Nous, ed. Justin Weinberg, May 30. http://dailynous.com/2018/05/30/tables-speak-existence-trans-philosophy-guest-talia-mae-bettcher/.Google Scholar
Bettcher, Talia Mae, and Garry, Ann. 2009. Transgender studies and feminism: Theory, politics, and gender realities. Special issue of Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy 24 (3).Google Scholar
Butler, Judith. 1993. Imitation and gender insubordination. In The lesbian and gay studies Reader, ed. Abelove, Henry, Aina Barale, Michèle, and Halperin, David M. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Butler, Judith. 2004. Undoing gender. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christian, Barbara. 1987. The race for theory. Cultural Critique 6 (Spring): 51–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dotson, Kristie. 2011. Concrete flowers: Contemplating the profession of philosophy. Hypatia 26 (2): 403–09.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dotson, Kristie. 2012. How is this article philosophy? Comparative Philosophy 3 (1): 3–29.Google Scholar
Du Bois, W. E. B. 1999. The souls of black folk. New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Guenther, Lisa. 2013. Solitary confinement: Social death and its afterlives. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kapusta, Stephanie. 2016. Misgendering and its moral contestability. Hypatia 31 (3): 502–19.Google Scholar
Lugones, María. 2003. Pilgrimages/peregrinajes: Theorizing coalition against multiple oppressions. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Lugones, María. 2010. Toward a decolonial feminism. Hypatia 25 (4): 742–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marvin, Amy. 2018. Comments posted on Feminist Philosophers, May 20. https://feministphilosophers.wordpress.com/2018/05/17/talking-about-talking/#comment-163853.Google Scholar
McKinnon, Rachel. 2015. Trans*formative experiences. Res Philosophical 92 (2): 419–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mikkola, Mari. 2009. Gender concepts and intuitions. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 39 (4): 559–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moulton, Janice. 1996. A paradigm of philosophy: The adversary method. In Women, knowledge, and reality: Explorations in feminist philosophy, ed. Garry, A. and Pearsall, M. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Namaste, Viviane K. 2000. Invisible lives: The erasure of transsexual and transgendered people. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Namaste, Viviane K. 2009. Undoing theory: The “transgender question” and the epistemic violence of anglo‐american feminist theory. Hypatia 24 (3): 11–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ortega, Mariana. 2016. In‐between: Latina feminist phenomenology, multiplicity, and the self. Albany: SUNY Press.Google Scholar
Priest, Graham. 2006. What is philosophy? Philosophy 81 (316): 189–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prosser, Jay. 1998. Second skins: The body narratives of transsexuality. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Rorty, Richard. 1978. Philosophy as a kind of writing: An essay on Derrida. New Literary History 10 (1): 228–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubin, Henry. 1998. Phenomenology as method in trans studies. GLQ 4 (2): 145–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, Bertrand. 1912. The problems of philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Salamon, Gayle. 2009. Justification and queer method, or leaving philosophy. Hypatia 24 (1): 225–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salamon, Gayle. 2010. Assuming a body: Transgender and rhetorics of materiality. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Salamon, Gayle. 2018. The life and death of Latisha King: A critical phenomenology of transphobia. New York: New York University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schussler, Jennifer. 2017. A defense of “trans racial” identity roils philosophy world. May 19. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/19/arts/a-defense-of-transracial-identity-roils-philosophy-world.html.Google Scholar
Shrage, Laurie, ed. 2009. You've changed: Sex reassignment and personal identity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Snorton, C. Riley. 2018. Black on both sides: A racial history of trans identity. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Stock, Kathleen. 2018. Response to Professor Talia Mae Bettcher. Medium, May 31. https://medium.com/@kathleenstock/response-to-professor-talia-mae-bettcher-21263ffd87c8Google Scholar
Stoljar, Natalie. 1995. Essence, identity, and the concept of woman. Philosophical Topics 23 (2): 262–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stone, Sandy. 2006. The empire strikes back: A posttransexual manifesto. In The transgender studies reader, ed. Stryker, S. and Whittle, S. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Stryker, Susan. 2006. (De)subjugated knowledges: An introduction to transgender studies. In The transgender studies reader, ed. Stryker, S. and Whittle, S. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Watson, Lori. 2016. The woman question. Transgender Studies Quarterly 3 (1–2): 248–55.Google Scholar
Zurn, Perry. 2016. Trans experience in philosophy. Blog of the American Philosophical Association. August: 11.Google Scholar
Zurn, Perry. 2018. The curiosity at work in deconstruction. Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy 27 (1): 84–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar