The Holism of Intersectionality and the Problem of Fragmentation

This talk focuses on an undertheorized aspect of intersectionality theory; viz. the version of holism to which intersectionality theorists should be committed. Here I reframe the 'problem of fragmentation' as the concern that the implications of intersectionality theory would undermine the basis from which one could assert that women have enough significant commonalities in their social experiences or oppressions to warrant the claim that they belong to a common social group that is being systematically oppressed.

I first identify a type of holism that intersectionality theorists have at times appeared to assume which I refer to as 'strong holism' that would in fact lead to the problem of fragmentation. I then propose an alternative — which I refer to as 'moderate holism' that retains the three core notions of intersectionality theory (simultaneity, inseparability, and mutual constitution) without entailing the problem of fragmentation.

Kyle Stroh
https://www.kmstroh.com/
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Center for Ethics and Human Values
Ohio State University

About the Speaker:

Kyle Stroh specializes in social and political philosophy (especially the epistemic and ethical issues surrounding the moral evaluation of societies' social practices), feminist philosophy (especially issues of intersectionality and feminist philosophy of science), and cross-cultural ethics (especially moral pluralism and responses to cultural relativism). His research focuses on the various ways in which discourse is capable of improving agents' moral evaluations of social practices and policies. This includes their evaluations of the social practices found in other cultures and their evaluations of the social policies guiding research within scientific communities.

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This is a talk with audience Q&A presented by the University of Toronto's Centre for Ethics that is free to attend and open to the public. Free refreshments will be provided at the event. Sometimes we look for each other after the talk for further discussion about the topic.

Unfortunately this talk will not be streamed online as usual.

About the Centre for Ethics (http://ethics.utoronto.ca):

The Centre for Ethics is an interdisciplinary centre aimed at advancing research and teaching in the field of ethics, broadly defined. The Centre seeks to bring together the theoretical and practical knowledge of diverse scholars, students, public servants and social leaders in order to increase understanding of the ethical dimensions of individual, social, and political life.

In pursuit of its interdisciplinary mission, the Centre fosters lines of inquiry such as (1) foundations of ethics, which encompasses the history of ethics and core concepts in the philosophical study of ethics; (2) ethics in action, which relates theory to practice in key domains of social life, including bioethics, business ethics, and ethics in the public sphere; and (3) ethics in translation, which draws upon the rich multiculturalism of the City of Toronto and addresses the ethics of multicultural societies, ethical discourse across religious and cultural boundaries, and the ethics of international society.

The Ethics of A.I. Lab at the Centre For Ethics recently appeared on a list of 10 organizations leading the way in ethical A.I.: https://ocean.sagepub.com/blog/10-organizations-leading-the-way-in-ethical-ai