NOTE: A passcode is required to attend this virtual event. Please contact Mercy Corredor (mcorredo@umich.edu) or Sumeet Patwardhan (sumeetcp@umich.edu) to request the passcode.

ABSTRACT

In previous work (Jenkins 2020) I have argued for the existence of a phenomenon I term ‘ontic injustice’, where a social kind is at least partially constituted by constraints and enablements that are wrongful to the individuals who are constructed as kind members. In such cases, I argue that being socially constructed as a kind member is wrongful in and of itself. The social kind ‘slave’ is a clear example of ontic injustice: we don’t need to know what happens to someone after they are socially constructed as a member of the social kind ‘slave’ to know that in being so constructed they have suffered a wrong. In this talk, I apply the concept of ontic injustice to gender. I argued that there are many varieties of gender kind, only some of which are ontically unjust. I then draw out some implications of this conclusion for discussions about gender recognition.