Watson

By employing a 'definitional stop' you can define a problem out of existence. The great British legal scholar, H.L.A. Hart, coined the phrase in 1959, in his Presidential address to the Aristotelian Society - the same society which invited ... https://www.jstor.org/stable/4544619?seq=1 …

Kathleen Stock to give a talk. Now, isn't that a nice link! 'The Aristotelian Society, founded in 1880, meets fortnightly in London to hear and discuss talks given by leading philosophers.' KS's recent OBE drove on guy to call her a 'subpar' philosopher - poor chap! @Docstockk

McK basically misrepresents Pam Sailor's position, and, ironically, accuses Sailors of using strawman arguments. No need to discuss this here - too tedious.

McK. discusses the 'medically female' claim: 'Trans women are also regularly medically recognized as female: my medical records all list ‘female’ with no asterisk or modifier.' The change of medical records is merely a consequence of the change of legal status, which ...

... in itself is based on a legal fiction. But as I have said, if the medical records of a transperson don't give any indication of their actual physiology, this could lead to bad outcomes in treatment, say, if they have been in an accident and are unconscious. But McK.'s way ...

... of looking at it is consistent with the view that sex is socially constructed: biology doesn't matter. If the medical records say 'female', and you believe it, that makes you female. There is something naive or childlike about this view, but there is a philosophical problem..

If the legal and medical records make you 'female', what does 'female' refer to? This is what we call a circular definition. @TomasBogardus

McK. definitely has it in for Pam Sailors. Pam's paper from 2020 must have hit home. The funny thing is, I am a member of a philosophy community on Facebook, where we share papers which are difficult to get hold of. I remember McK. asking for Pam's latest paper...