Struggling for ‘Woman’: a Reconciliation with the Ordinary

46 | 2022

Camila Lobo

Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (NOVA – FCSH), Lisboa, Portugal
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5408-5551

This article aims to show that Ludwig Wittgenstein’s ordinary language philosophy provides an adequate framework to approach the feminist debate over the meaning of ‘woman’. I begin by clarifying the philosophical problems that are at the basis of the debate. I then expound Wittgenstein’s later conception of meaning and briefly survey some of the most relevant Wittgensteinian feminist descriptive analyses of ‘woman’. I argue that such analyses must be at the basis of an ameliorative approach to the debate, while the latter should be understood as a practice of conceptual delimiting in view of a special purpose.

Keywords

feminism, ordinary language philosophy, political philosophy, ameliorative approaches

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22355/exaequo.2022.46.02
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