Metaphors of being a Φ

Abstract

The category women is a central analytic category of feminism, but has been very troubled in feminist theory and philosophy. In the background of the troubles with the category women is the metaphoric image of a social category as a set and its exemplars as set members. But the category women cannot be defined as sets are defined, so that is an inappropriate metaphor. A number of feminists and race theorists turn to Wittgenstein, who offers alternative metaphors. This chapter explores the powers and resonances of his metaphors-in the case of family resemblance, using the work of cognitive psychologists Rosch and Mervis on categories that have prototype structure. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.