Trans and non-binary experience and the philosophy of mind: A brief comment on Salamon’s Assuming a Body.

Over the last decades, trans and non-binary experience has inspired a rich philosophical literature. 1,2 Also as a reaction to gender critical feminism and going along with queer theory following Judith Butler’s work,3 trans studies by for instance Sandy Stone4 or more recently Susan Stryker,5–7 as well as trans philosophy following amongst others Talia Bettcher8 have provided important insights into this multi-faceted topic. In her book 'Assuming a body', Gayle Salamon is able to give a powerful account of general human experience, as well as specifically TNBE, that can capture not only insights about biological sex and socially constructed gender, but also ‘sexual self’, i.e. bodily phenomenological experiences concerning one’s own sex. In my following brief comment on Salamon, I would like to elaborate on how such a phenomenological approach touches on a number of open questions in the philosophy of mind, which I have discussed in a recent book.12