Women in Philosophy
Sarah Kahn

15 September 2017
英国哲学系中女性只占25%，这一事实该如何解释呢?请注意，美国大学的数据并没有太大不同。MIT philosopherSally Haslanger reportsthat even "As recently as 2010, philosophy had a lower percentage of women doctorates than math, chemistry and economics."
Ina debate on the topic, philosopher Mary Warnock says we should not think the reason for this gender disparity is that women dislike philosophy because of "its supposedly adversarial style, its devotion to winning an argument rather than seeking truth or consensus.” Nor does she think the inbalance shows conscious bias toward women in the field.
Responding to Warnock, philosopher Julian Baggini argues that while there may not be a conscious bias,unconscious偏差可能是造成这种差异的原因。 Philosophers have an "inflated sense" of their own reasoning abilities, and assume they are immune from gender bias because, “Logic is gender-neutral, philosophy is logical, ergo philosophy is gender-neutral.”
Why do you think there are so few women in philosphy? Do you agree with Warnock's or Baggini’s explanations for gender imbalance in philosophy departments?

Comments(1)

Harold G. Neuman's picture

Harold G. Neuman

Monday, September 18, 2017 -- 12:55 PM

坦白地说，我真的不知道。

坦白地说，我真的不知道。过了很多年(从我十几岁的时候，一直到53岁或54岁左右)，我才模糊地意识到自己对哲学有兴趣。在我上高中的时候，并没有什么特别的哲学运动。美国的中产阶级，从50年代末到60年代及以后，并不是哲学思想的温床——无论是对男人还是女人。以“做哲学”为生可能没有人考虑过，更不用说那些书呆子以外的人会认真讨论了。而且，即使我在这一点上是合格的，谈论哲学对一个人的受欢迎程度没有任何帮助，而且如果一个人是男性，可能会导致严重的屁股痛。女性可能不必为此担心这么多，但是，正如我们今天所知道的，霸凌有很多形式。我有一种感觉，越南战争与美国哲学的兴起有关。我没有具体的证据，但我怀疑有人有。无论如何，旧的习惯很难改变，旧的观念更难改变。 Thinking is for everyone who wants to take the time and make the effort to do so. I'll leave it at that.

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