uncartesianing

It's very likely that every single person in our class is a "Cartesian" thinker, at least in some capacity. Our methods of thinking are our great success; in my opinion, if it was Descartes's Meditations which changed the way the world thought, he truly did liberate the "common man". Having said this, there is no doubt in my mind that Cartesian thinking falls short when it comes to explaining life's gray areas. When we wonder whether being gay or straight is nature or nurture, for example, we are being pointlessly Cartesian.

There is no escaping our point of view, but I think that Anne Fausto Sterling does subvert it in some important ways. I feel she refutes total mind/body separation, for example, which is important. When we think of something as being in the mind, we automatically separate it from the body, as though what happens in the mind is not "real". I'm not sure if what I'm saying is making any sense, but I think it's pretty clear (at least to myself) that the mind and body are not separate entities.

While she does say that there are six genders, she refutes that there are only two, and helps us understand that gender is not black or white, but is instead many shades of gray. Is Fausto Sterling being a Cartesian thinker, in the sense that we've discussed it in the class? She appears to use Cartesian methods to "prove" her points, so yes, I believe she is, but I think she thinks outside of the box enough that she helps us get a greater understanding of the world.

So... How to get unbamboozled. I would say it's okay that we're Cartesian. I mean, I don't know how to unCartesian. But we could take Fausto Sterling's approach and accept that "truth" isn't necessarily what we were brought up to believe, and then turn our Cartesian eyes towards getting a bigger understanding of "truth". Yep.