1. Introduction
2. What the Sexes Could Not Be: The Complex View
3. What the Sexes Could Be: The Gamete View
4. Gender is Defined in Terms of the Sexes
5. When Biology Meets Politics
6. A Defense of the Sex-Tracking View of Pronouns
7. Conclusion
Biography
Tomás Bogardus is Professor of Philosophy at Pepperdine University, USA. He works mainly in metaphysics and epistemology, as well as philosophy of language, and has been publishing on the philosophy of sex and gender since 2019.
“Bogardus does an excellent job of explaining and dispelling the confusion behind current thinking about sex. He takes his opponents seriously, engaging in a clear, comprehensive, and compelling way. The book is perfectly positioned to make a timely intervention on the current debate, and to reorient conversations about what sex is, how it relates to gender, and what our obligations are when it comes to pronouns. Bogardus brings ideas from philosophy of biology, philosophy of language, ethics, and more together into a forceful argument that it will be hard for critics to ignore. A must-read for students and academics alike.”
-- Holly Lawford-Smith, Associate Professor in Political Philosophy at the University of Melbourne, Australia.
“Contemporary discussions of sex, both inside and outside the academy, have generated nonsense on an industrial scale. In this compact and lucid book, Tomás Bogardus sweeps it all away, arguing for a novel version of the standard biological account of sex. The Nature of the Sexes also illuminates gender, gender identity, conceptual engineering, and feminine and masculine pronouns. A compelling and important contribution, and a demonstration of the value of careful philosophy.”
-- Alex Byrne, Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy at MIT, USA.
