The foundation of individual rights is the assumption that people have wants and needs and are authorities on what those wants and needs are. If people's stated desires were just some kind of erasable inscription or reprogrammable brainwashing, any atrocity could be justified.
Equity feminism is a moral doctrine about equal treatment that makes no commitments regarding open empirical issues in psychology or biology.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Equity feminism advocates for equal treatment of all individuals without delving into biological or psychological differences.
This quote by Steven Pinker highlights the essence of equity feminism as a principle that prioritizes equal treatment for all genders based on moral grounds, while intentionally avoiding potentially contentious discussions about biological or psychological differences. It stresses the importance of focusing on fairness and equality in society, without getting bogged down by debates that could distract from the primary goal of achieving justice and equal rights for everyone.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a panel discussion on gender equality, one might quote Pinker to emphasize the importance of focusing on equitable treatment.
More from Steven Pinker
All quotes βThe linguistic clumsiness of tourists and students might be the price we pay for the linguistic genius we displayed as babies, just as the decrepitude of age in the price we pay for the vigor of youth.
If we are not to abandon values such as peace and equality, or our commitments to science and truth, then we must pry these values away from claims about our psychological makeup that are vulnerable to being proven false.
We adults protect ourselves with laws, police, workplace regulations and social norms and there is no conceivable reason why children should be left more vulnerable, other that laziness or callousness in considering what life is like from their point of view.
The idea that children are passive repositories to be shaped by their parents has been massively overstated. A child's peer group is a far greater determinant of its development and achievements than parental aspiration.
Reason is non-negotiable. Try to argue against it, or to exclude it from some realm of knowledge, and you've already lost the argument, because you're using reason to make your case. ... We don't "believe" in reason.
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I sometimes think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm.
The key element of social control is the strategy of distraction that is to divert public attention from important issues and changes decided by political and economic elites, through the technique of flood or flooding continuous distractions and insignificant information.
Iβve worked in an economy that rewards someone who saves the lives of others on a battlefield with a medal, rewards a great teacher with thank-you notes from parents, but rewards those who can detect the mispricing of securities with sums reaching into the billions.
The fact that the most powerful and significant connections in our lives are (at the time) invisible to us seems to me a compelling argument for religious reverence rather than skeptical empiricism as a response to life's meaning.
The body, she says, is subject to the force of gravity. But the soul is ruled by levity, pure.