The Fallacy of the Opposite Sex and the Law of the Excluded Middle
Genotypes, Phenotypes and Aristotle.
(32 slides)
creatively compiled by dr. michael farnworth
An introduction to the law of the excluded middle…
 Aristotle had three basic laws of thought.
 1st law: that X is X or that everything is or is not something
else.
 2nd law: that X cannot be both Y and not Y, meaning that the
same attribute cannot belong and not belong to the same
subject at the same time and in the same respect.
 3rd law: that X is either Y or not Y, or that an attribute belongs
to or does not belong to a single subject.
The law of the excluded middle, formulated by Aristotle, says:
Either A is B or A is not B.
The middle option, "A is and is not B", is excluded, hence,
excluded middle.
“If a given proposition is not true then its denial must be true”.
In terms of logic, the law states that a thing is either one way or
another it cannot be both?
X cannot be X and Y- it has to be one or the other.
If that were not the case then there would be logical
contradictions galore which would be intolerable.
Every statement is either true or false there is nothing in
between!
Applying the logic…
 This same logic has been applied to the sexes, male and female.
 Either a male, is a male or is not.
 Man cannot be male and female.
 There is nothing in between, nothing, it either is or is not.
 But there are some problems here is it black or is it white?
 It cannot be black and white or it comes out grey which is not
acceptable.
Lets explore this a little further…
Genotype…
 The genotype is the specific genetic makeup of an individual,
usually in the form of DNA.
 This is the internally coded, inheritable information carried by
all living organisms.
 This stored information is used as a blueprint or set of
instructions for building and maintaining a living creature.
 These instructions are found within almost all cells (the "internal"
part), they are written in a coded language (DNA), they are copied
at the time of cell division or reproduction and are passed
from one generation to the next ("inheritable").
Phenotype…
 This is the outward, physical manifestation of the organism.
 These are the physical parts, the sum of the atoms,
molecules, macromolecules, cells, structures, metabolism,
energy utilization, tissues, organs, reflexes and behaviors;
anything that is part of the observable structure, function or
behavior of a living organism.
The relationship between the genotype and phenotype is a simple one ...
The Genotype codes for the Phenotype.
The internally coded, inheritable information, or Genotype,
carried by all living organisms, holds the critical instructions that
are used and interpreted by the cellular memory and intelligence
of the cells to produce the outward, physical manifestation, or
Phenotype of the organism.
To simplify…
 The genotype is the genetic information for our (phenotype) of
height, weight, eye color, hair color, bone structure, muscle
mass, facial appearance and any other observable physical
characteristic.
 Genotype is the interior genetic information that determines
the exterior (phenotype) characteristics of our body.
Since we have genetic material from both our mother and our
father then we have genotype from male and female.
Using Aristotle's law of the excluded middle in defining the
differences between maleness and femaleness grossly distorts
the character of these differences.
The results…
 The results of this type of logic creates a dichotomized reality
of maleness and femaleness that polarizes many human
qualities into one or the other extreme:
 Female qualities like gentleness, kindness, empathy,
compassion, love, softness, understanding, nurturing, weak,
fickle.
 Male qualities like competitive, strong, brave, hard- nosed,
robust, authoritative, protective, hard, logical, assertive
 Become mutually exclusive!!!
I may be wrong, but weren’t we born human beings first?
Sharing vast amounts of the same kind of genotypes from our
parents with the overlap of the phenotype characteristics being
numerous.
Both males and females have heads, arms, legs, feet, hands and
trunks!
Both males and females laugh, cry, get angry, think, fear, speak,
walk, run, swim and play!
“Typically, the overlap between the behavior of males and
females is enormous, there is far more variation within sexes
than between sexes, and a statistically significant number of
females will fall well into the range of distinctly male behavior,
and vice versa.”
R. Nadeau and M. Kafatos The Non-Local Universe, p. 122
So now we live in a culture with rigid boundaries about appropriate and
inappropriate gender behaviors…
the violation of which carries intense energies and social consequences.
Women who don’t fit in the narrowly defined cultural corridors
of feminine behavior are labeled, made fun of, shamed,
demeaned, dismissed and ostracized from the metaphorical
community.
Men who don’t fit into the narrowly defined corridors of
masculine behaviors pay an even higher price they are labeled
gay, fag, homo, queer, fem, mommas boy, etc.
the negative and hostile energies associated with feminine men
(gay or not) is amazing.
Homophobia is alive and well in this culture and manifests itself
regularly.
Where is the logic?
 For a Western culture that prides itself on the use of logic there
is something very illogical about using the law of the excluded
middle to define maleness and femaleness when there are so
many obvious contradictions and exceptions.
 The similarities and sameness that exists between gender and is
shared by both genders is staggeringly significant!
Opposite
 Since language defines and creates our realities isn’t it
interesting that we have a vocabulary that utilizes the term
opposite to describe the genders and the opposite sex.
 What is so innately opposite about us?
 There is no reason to play out an agenda from the ancient
worlds with our current mind set and paradigm about the
genders.
Research indications…
 Recent research suggests that the human body and brain are
sexed (R. Nadeau S/he Brain, Praeger 1996).
 Other differences such as language fluency, associational
fluency, verbal reasoning, strength, may be statistically and
interactionally significant.
 But there has to be a better way to categorize the genders
than extreme dichotomization and polarized ancient logic.
To apply the law of the excluded middle to the human family
(where the middle ground is the genetic overlap of genotype and phenotype) is a strange
and distorted application and result of logic.
We can do better.
We better do better.
Here is one suggestion:
The use of the principle of complementarity that view maleness and
femaleness as both being necessary to understand the human condition.
The complementary Principle…
 The original idea was created by Niels Bohr one of the
fathers of Quantum Physics.
 It was applied first to the understanding of light as both a
particle and wave with both states needed for a full
comprehension of the nature of a photon.
 We will apply the same logic to male and female.
I want to use a paraphrase of a well known scripture to illustrate
the idea of the complementary principle:
“So Life created man in it’s own image, in the image of Life
created s/he him; male and female created s/he them.”
Genesis 1:27
The language that we use enlightens us and also imprisons us
within it’s parameters.
When we speak of Life it transcends our puny notions of
understanding both masculine and feminine origins.
Life is infinite and as such cannot be appropriately limited by our
finite and biased understanding.
Knowing the true nature of Life:
 To know the true nature and character of Life requires the
whole overlay of Life- not a fragmented (male or female) polarized
part.
 Life, transcends male and female, and both genders
compliment each other in manifesting Life’s nature.
 Male and female are complimentary constructs not
oppositional ones.
 The nature of Life Transcends maleness and femaleness.
Male and female are two sides of the same coin
and the complementary coin is the nature of Life.
“We make too much of it; we are men and women in the second place, human
beings in the first.”
Olive Schreiner
To embrace the other gender as a complimentary aspect of my own
origins and nature (being a biological product of a male and female) may provide
some logical healing to a fragmented and distorted belief system
that was inspired by an ancient philosopher by the name of Aristotle
and his logical construct of
“the law of the excluded middle”.
Simply stated:
We need to adopt a new and more appropriate paradigm to view
the genders in other than the one we absorbed in the culture.
If not, we will be guilty of becoming part of the problem, of
seeing men and women as opposite and polarized instead of
similar and complementary.
the end