The Concept of Human Gender: Its Epistemological and Ethical Impact

Abstract

This contribution presents a terminology intended to permit an adequate de-scription of the realities of inter and trans persons. The epistemological appro-priateness creates, at the same time, a basis for acquiring a fitting ethical attitude towards these persons. To this end, it is argued to be necessary to make a clear distinction between the concepts of ‘sexuality’ and of ‘gender’ 2 and to acknowl-edge a third, phenomenal dimension of gender besides the physical and social one. It is argued that a person’s experienced gender should be accepted as their gender. Since the experienced gender is often understood as gender identity, which also induces criticism, the contribution concludes by presenting arguments in favor of conceiving the experienced or psychological dimension of gender as an identity.