Annette Baier - "A Naturalist View of Persons" Annette Baier was a New Zealand born philosopher who was

only the fifth woman in the American Philosophical Association to be elected as chairperson (of the Eastern Division). This is her plenary address to the Eastern Division of the APA and Rosalind was there at the time. She tells me that the audience at this speech was sharply divided between the women who were cackling with laughter, and the men who grew increasingly uncomfortable. - Naturalism: "the viewpoint that the laws of nature (as opposed to the supernatural) operate in the universe and that nothing exists beyond the natural universe." (thank you, Wikipedia) - Baier takes a naturalist view of persons "to emphasize the interdependence of persons. Persons are born to earlier persons, and learn arts of personhood from other persons." - Baier is critical of Locke and Kant's (and Descartes to a lesser extent) views of personhood, in particular, their tendencies toward human chauvinism, species elitism and the emphasis of the individual as being independent as opposed to interdependent. - Locke: Birth is the origin of man but not of the soul. Kant: "To be a person is not to be born of woman, nor indeed to be born at all, but to spring forth from some fertile noumenal field of Ares fully formed and upright." (her words, clearly dripping with sarcasm). Both men claim that people transcend their biology "to enter into some supernatural realm where we are not longer essentially related to and dependent on others, unless we choose such relationships." - Baier thinks that this kind of thinking is a particularly masculine way of philosophising. She appeals to a more Humean naturalist view of philosophy, and says that women tend more toward this kind of philosophy simply because they understand that saying something like "no man is born of woman" is fucking ridiculous even if it is meant metaphysically. Because of the way women are placed within families and social structures, they are acutely aware of how interdependent humans are and that while self-consciousness is a undoubtedly a curious trait it doesn't automatically make people superior as a species. - Baier thinks that it is important that we all recognise our interdepence with others, because those who don't find themselves subject to the same types of problems (war, oppression, etc) as everyone else, only worse because they harbour the delusion that they are superior beings. The naturalist philosopher accepts that she is part of society, that she cannot externalise her ethical behaviour for a higher power to judge her as an individual. She must be judged by the people around her. - Sometimes Baier is sly and implies a double meaning, sometimes she just straight up calls out the misogyny of her fellow philosophers equating superior attitudes of Kant and Locke toward nonhumans with the superior attitudes of some of the male philosophers toward women (knowing Kant and Locke, women probably counted as non-human). - "Our natural habitat, as persons, is among other persons. Our personhood shows in the way we are responsive to one other, responsive to earlier and later generations, responsive to the presence of other groups of persons, groups with differing histories and interestingly different selfunderstandings. Self-understanding is a shared taste, and cultivating it calls for our full capacities for mutual response."