Roots of Knowledge Speaker Series: Kelli Potter

800 West University Parkway,Orem UT 84097

24 February, 2022

Description

Join us for a presentation by Kelli Potter in the beautiful Roots of Knowledge stained-glass gallery! Free and open to all! “The Logic of Gender” - Presented by Kelli PotterConsider, if you will, two seemingly unrelated topics: logic and gender. The dominant view in the west is that logic is unassailable and impartial. This view scoffs at the idea that logic could be political or biased in any way. However, this view is mistaken. Logic is political. And western or “classical” logic is one that justifies the domination of marginalized groups. Classical logic is binary, involving two mutually exclusive and exhaustive categories: the True and the False. It sees the world as black and white, always privileging one category over another. This strict binary is imbedded in our conceptual frameworks, including that of gender. And the gender binary justifies not only the oppression of women, but also of transgender and intersex people. How should we deal with this problem? Do we have to abandon logic? Or is it possible to construct a logic that isn’t oppressive, but rather liberatory? In this talk, I will attempt to answer these questions.About Kelli PotterKelli D. Potter is Associate Professor of Philosophy and member of the Religious Studies board at Utah Valley University. She has published numerous articles on philosophy of religion and Mormon theology, including the recent “Trans and Mutable Bodies” in the Routledge Handbook of Mormonism and Gender. She also has research interests in the philosophy of logic and the philosophy of gender______________________Roots of Knowledge is a stained-glass panorama of history and human drama. The intricate details incorporated into every window represent years of painstaking research on the events and people that shaped humankind from the days of wooly mammoths and cavemen to the iPhone. Created by Holdman Studios and installed at the UVU Fulton Library in 2016, this artistic landmark comprises 80 individual panes and took 12 years to complete.For information on where to park at UVU, please visit https://www.uvu.edu/parking/visitor-parking.html.