Sally Haslanger

Sally Haslanger reading Notes

• Feminist philosophers and critical race theorists critique contemporary Anglophone philosophy for being less valuable to their projects than it could be.

• Analytic philosophy is criticized for being overly individualistic.

• It is also seen as insufficiently sensitive to the social and political contexts that shape the questions we ask, methods we use, and the implications of theories.

• A shared concern is the lack of attention to the social domain as both a subject of theorizing and as an influence on theorizers.

• These critiques have emerged in feminist and anti-racist social theory contexts.

• There is a call for analytic philosophy to contribute more effectively to social justice theories.

• Social Justice

  • Despite significant progress from the Women's Movement and Civil Rights Movement, societies remain unjustly stratified.

  • Systematic and durable disadvantages persist for racial/ethnic minorities, women, LGBTQ communities, non-citizens, the disabled, and the poor.

  • Both individuals and social institutions contribute to inequality, but the issue is not solely due to unjust actions or poorly structured institutions.

  • Good individuals do not necessarily create a just society; cumulative effects of seemingly just actions can still lead to injustice (e.g., speculative market busts causing widespread poverty).

  • Justice is not guaranteed by well-structured institutions alone.

  • Cohen argues that a truly just society requires not only just coercive rules but also an ethos of justice.

  • An ethos of justice informs individual choices and promotes a distribution more just than economic rules alone can secure.

  • Cohen critiques Rawls, aligning with the feminist slogan "the personal is political," emphasizing the role of individual choices in justice.

  • Social ethos serves as an additional constraint on justice, addressing inequalities not remedied by rules or institutions alone.

  • Individual and institutional injustices are surface-level issues, reflecting deeper sources of inequality in social meaning.

  • Social meaning is the "glue" that holds social structures together, influencing and sustaining systemic inequalities.

• Social Structures

  • Social structures are networks of social relations established through practices.

  • Practices connect individuals to each other and the material world, situating them at specific nodes in the structure.

  • Example: Cooking is a practice that creates roles (e.g., cook) and relationships (e.g., with farmers, customers, tools, and norms).

  • Social practices are collective solutions to coordination or access problems regarding resources.

  • Practices consist of interdependent schemas (culturally shared concepts and beliefs) and resources (human, nonhuman, animate, or inanimate with practical or symbolic value).

  • Schemas organize information, coordinate actions, and influence behavior but are resistant to change.

  • Resources gain value through actions shaped by schemas, creating a feedback loop (e.g., corn as food, commodity, or symbol).

  • Social relations are entrenched through repeated practices, forming systems that constitute structures.

  • Social groups (e.g., gender, race, or professions) are sets of people functioning within specific nodes of a structure.

  • Schemas provide the foundation for social meaning.

  • On this model (P=S+R):

    • Social relations are established by entrenched and repeated practices.

    • Systems of interdependent practices/ relations are structures.

    • A social group, e.g., a gender, a race,

    • but also farmers, nurses, the unemployed, is

    • a set of people who function at a node (or set of nodes) in a structure.

    • Schemas are the basis for social meaning.

• Social Meaning

  • Social meanings are the semiotic content attached to actions, inactions, statuses, and objects within specific contexts (e.g., corn, traffic signals, colors, etc.).

  • Social meanings are dynamic, contested, and vary across communities and individuals.

  • They constrain or empower individuals, often in non-optional ways, influencing behavior and interaction.

  • Social meanings are created, reproduced, and disrupted, guided by schemas that interpret resources.

  • Injustice is rooted in social meanings, learned and lived through culture, necessitating attention and change for social justice.

  • Examples of social meanings' impact:

    • Stigma: Racial stigmatization (e.g., during Jim Crow) includes stereotypes, rationalized explanations, derogatory evaluations, and demeaning attitudes.

    • Social stereotypes/ideals:

      • The "ideal mother" is shaped by overlapping cognitive models (e.g., genetics, nurturance, marriage).

      • Subcategories of "mother" (e.g., stepmother, surrogate, adoptive) arise when these models diverge.

      • Central ideals (e.g., housewife-mother) vary historically and culturally, reflecting learned and specific social practices.

  • Social meanings, including stigma and stereotypes, are culturally defined and must be learned, differing across societies.

• Schemas and Language

  • Naming shapes perceptions of the social world, influencing its structure (Bourdieu).

  • Social meanings function as culturally learned schemas attached to actions, objects, and events.

  • Schemas guide recognition, store information, and shape behaviors and emotions; they are triggered and reinforced by language.

  • Language encodes schemas as "common sense," making them seem inevitable and shaping social life.

  • Schemas may fail due to false beliefs, questionable dispositions, or reliance on unsuitable concepts.

  • Concepts like "slut," "mother," and "woman" reflect societal categorizations and guide problematic responses.

  • Language influences social practices; changing discursive practices can challenge unjust schemas.

  • Example: Feminist "slut walks" aim to challenge and reclaim the evaluative content of "slut" schemas.

  • Defining terms and deciding their inclusion in vocabulary is a political act, merging linguistic and social meanings.

  • Concepts like "mother" shape women's lives, raising questions about why and how they are defined.

  • Revising schemas must account for historical and social contexts, balancing modifications with their impact on social practices.

  • Philosophical analysis of schemas requires close attention to social contexts and cannot be done in isolation ("from the armchair").

• Philosophical Analysis

  • Even descriptive scientific accounts can function prescriptively, shaping the reality they describe (Bourdieu).

  • Actions gain meaning within social practices, challenging individualistic views that isolate actions as outputs of beliefs and desires.

  • Conceptual repertoires are embedded in cultural schemas, which require critique due to their connections to unjust practices and structures.

  • Theorizing itself is a social practice and must be subjected to critique.

  • Analytic philosophy’s focus on analyzing concepts and their relations is insufficient for addressing social justice issues.

  • Philosophy should include:

    • A social philosophy of language/mind, epistemology, and ontology.

    • Systematic accounts of social meaning, collective understanding, and structural explanations of human action.

    • Critique of ordinary and philosophical schemas embedded in social practices (e.g., knowledge, agency, morality, family).

  • Without critique, philosophy risks reinforcing the status quo and perpetuating injustice.

  • Concepts, even valuable ones, must be justified in terms of their purpose and impact on social practices.

  • Truth alone is not enough; inapt concepts can lead to poor theories and systemic harm, particularly in the social domain.

  • Philosophical inquiry should evaluate concepts for their aptness relative to collective purposes, beyond merely tracking truth.

  • Philosophy provides transposable tools for collective organization, shaping distinctions and classifications that guide society.

  • Defining concepts is a political act with cultural implications, positioning philosophy as a producer of culture, not a bystander.

  • Philosophical work should engage with social meaning to better serve the cause of social justice.

PDF Haslanger summary

Introduction

• Sally Haslanger discusses the limitations and concerns of contemporary Anglophone philosophy, primarily from feminist and critical race theorist perspectives.

• Key complaints include:

  • Overly individualistic nature of analytic philosophy.

  • Insufficient sensitivity to the social and political contexts of theorizing.

Social Justice

• Despite advancements from the Women's Movement and the Civil Rights Movement, systemic inequalities persist in society.

• Key points regarding social justice:

  • Categories of disadvantaged groups include racial and ethnic minorities, women, LGBTQ communities, non-citizens, the disabled, and the poor.

  • Addressing inequality requires awareness that it arises not only from individual actions but also from collective social institutions.

  • Discussions of justice must consider individual choices and the underlying social ethos that can lead to unjust inequalities, highlighting Cohen's critique of Rawls and the idea that personal decisions can perpetuate injustice.

Social Structures

• Social structures are defined as networks of social relations created through collective practices.

• Practices shape roles and connections within these structures.

  • Example: "Cooking" encompasses knowledge, norms, and relationships essential for this social function.

• Concepts and resources involved in social relations are mutually supportive and influential:

  • Schemas are culturally shared concepts that help interpret and navigate social practices.

  • Resources hold practical, moral, aesthetic, and cultural value and are affected by the corresponding schemas.

Social Meaning

• Social meaning emerges through schemas tied to actions, inactions, and statuses, both in human interactions and material representations.

• Examples of social meanings:

  • Objects like corn can be perceived differently based on the cultural framework—food, commodity, or religious symbol.

  • The meanings attached to objects influence individual behaviors and perceptions, affecting how these resources are utilized or valued.

• Social meanings are neither fixed nor universally agreed upon; they evolve and can be contested across different communities.

Injustice and Social Meaning

• Injustice has deep roots in social constructions and cultural interpretations, emphasizing the significance of transforming social meanings to address social justice effectively.

• First examples:

  • Stigmatization of racial groups and the public derogatory evaluations of the groups.

  • Gender constructs around motherhood illustrate how models for defining "mother" can vary significantly and how societal ideals shape these identities.

Schemas and Language

• Language constructs social meanings, framing the understanding of social roles and relationships.

• Naming practices influence social perception and drive behavioral responses:

  • Use of terms like "mother" or "slut" exemplifies how language establishes dominant schemas and social norms.

• Philosophical analysis should explore how language influences the social meanings of concepts and whether terms perpetuate inequities.

Philosophical Analysis

• Action is meaningful when framed within social practices, challenging traditional views of individualism in philosophy.

• The call for a richer understanding of:

  • Social meanings and their evolution within public discourse.

  • Critiques of schemas that influence social structures and practices, including those in philosophy.

• Emphasis on the need for philosophy to examine the implications of the concepts it employs, especially concerning social justice.

Conclusion

• Encouragement for philosophers to engage with social meanings and recognize their impact on justice.

• Understanding philosophical concepts as political acts is vital for creating equitable social structures.

Sally Haslanger Lecture notes

• Moral epistemology critique

• Critique of analytic philosophy

  • Overly individualistic

• continental philosophy; western and centralized around European nations and lands

• Rawls principles of justice are universal and unchanging 

• Explore concerns as they have arisen in the context of feminist and antiracist social theory

• Philosophical method

  • Discursive

  • Deeply entrenched with language that coordinates the collective schema and with social meanings that inform perceptual and cognitive cues for public life

• What is (in)justice

  • The philosophical investigation of justice is not isolated from social meanings that define, orient, and configure social practice

  • justice/injustice is manifested in the social world through the formation of social structures that are constituted by webs of practices

  • Social ethics

  • “On my view, social meaning is the glue that holds social structures together”

  • “Racial and ethnic minorities, women, LGBTQ communities, non-citizens, the disabled, the poor, and others are categorically disadvantage is systematic and durable”

• Practice first account

  • Social structures are networks of social relations

  • Social relations are constituted through practices

  • Our practices relate us to each other and to the material world

    • Situate us at nodes in the structure

• An action is meaningful in relation to a social practice

• Our conceptual repertoire is embedded in cultural schemas that organize our life together

• What philosophical analysis ought to be/do?

  • Normative challenge is not all about moral/political debate

  • It also about challenging the “common-sense” and forcing/encouraging conceptual change

  • Philosophical discourse requires resistance to “inapt” concepts

• The method for “good theory”

1. A Theory of Aptness”: “a systematic account of social meaning and meaning change” (haslanger, 4): Generating alternative vocabularies that study the interrelation between collective perceptual patterns and structural bases of individual actions

2. Critique of philosophical and social collective cognitive shemas that rely on epistemic norms and ideals of reason

• Apt concepts vs. inapt concepts (POTENTIAL FINAL EXAM QUESTION)

• “It may be tempting to suggest that in the case of philosophical inquiry we are just concerned with truth. Does a bare concern with truth provide a basis for our inquiry? The simple answer is no. Truths can be expressed with inapt concepts (grue?). But inapt concepts don’t make good theory (or even knowledge?)... An uncritical acceptance of truths and the concepts they depend on may actually cause systematic harm”

  • Haslanger 2013, 4