Answer:
Mine is a philosopher I deeply respect and admire. However, amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas.
The philosopher is Judith Butler, and the disagreement is over the claim that sexual differences, and the body generally, as well as agency or personhood, are “socially constructed.”
In a sense, I can’t really disagree with the claim, because I’ve never been able to understand it clearly enough to evaluate it with confidence. But in so far as I do understand it, I’m not persuaded. Indeed, it seems virtually self-evident that sexual differences (and many other features of the body) are not social constructs.
A subsidiary thesis is that the mechanism by which social construction takes place is “power,” and that seems dubious as well – although, again, much turns on how we define the term. In general, though, a great deal of social construction seems to take the form of interactions that are entirely voluntary and mutually beneficial.
Moreover, the metaphor of construction is misleading, because social interaction is really nothing like building, fabricating, or making. Interacting with others is more about reaching an understanding, acquiring and exercising skills or know-how, and engaging in expressive communicative action.
