Congress Paper Abstract

À propos du sexe de l’âme

MICHAEL GRONEBERG, DÉPARTEMENT DE PHILOSOPHIE, UNIVERSITÉ FRIBOURG MISÉRICORDE, SWITZERLAND

Being sexed is one of the fundamental qualities of human existence. Although intensely linked to our bodies, the paper argues that human sex is foremost a property of the soul. The attempt to explicate the sexual difference shows that besides the notions of sex - biologically determined, and gender - socially defined, we need that of a psychic sex in order to fully understand human sexuation. The « sex of the soul » refers to a fundamental property of a person’s mind, to be understood as an identity. A person’s acquisition of sex in early childhood is mediated, though not determined, by social interaction, and it is overriding any kind of sex defined by corporeal properties or assigned to the person by others.

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