[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-40791-en":3,"doc-seo-40791-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},40791,1374391974468,"Eden","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_29158cc5080c5b710cf443261637dec0",8,"Research & Report","Sex and Sexual Orientation, Gender and Sexual Preference","The paper defends a sex-based conception of sexual orientation against recent proposals to add gender or replace sex with gender as the basis of sexual orientation. It argues that sex-based attraction remains plausible because it can accommodate gender-based attraction understood as preference, because the offered reasons for revising the basis are not convincing, and because there are evolutionary and non-evolutionary reasons for treating sex as foundational. The view also accommodates newer orientations beyond heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality, including pansexuality and related cases, while allowing broad inclusion for surgically altered bodies.","Article  \nSex and Sexual Orientation, Gender and Sexual Preference  \nRaja Halwani  \nLiberal Arts Department; School of the Art Institute of Chicago; 112 S Michigan Avenue; Chicago, IL 60603; United States of America; [rhalwa@saic.edu](rhalwa@saic.edu)  \nSubmitted: 25 November 2022, accepted: 24 September 2023, published: 31 October 2023  \nAbstract: On what we can call the “folk” conception of sexual orientation, sexual orientation is understood as sex based attraction, that is, as (partly) attraction on the basis of the perceived sex of the person to whom one is attracted. However, in recent discussions, philosophers have either added gender to sex as the basis of sexual orientation, or have altogether replaced sex with gender. Moreover, this addition or replacement has gone – mostly – unargued for. This paper argues that a sex based conception of sexual orientation remains plausible because (1) it is compatible with gender based attraction, which I argue can be understood as a preference; (2) the reasons so far on offer for adding gender to sex (or for replacing sex with gender) are not convincing; (3) we have good evolutionary and non evolutionary reasons for thinking that sex is the basis of sexual orientation; (4) we have good reasons to not add gender as a basis of sexual orientation; and (5) a sex based conception of sexual orientation accommodates the various sexual orientations that have recently appeared, orientationsin addition to the folk two (or three) of heterosexuality, homosexuality (and bisexuality), such as pansexuality, skoliosexuality, gynsexuality, and androsexuality. What emerges is a conception of sexual orientation based on the sex of the people to whom we are attracted, but that understands sexual based attraction in broad enough terms to include surgically altered bodies.  \nKeywords: bidimensional dispositionalism; bisexuality; folk conception of sexual orientation; gender; gender based attraction; gender presentation; homosexuality; heterosexuality; sex; sex based attraction; sexual evolution; sexual orientation; sexual preferences; taxonomic function of sexual orientation  \nHow to cite: Halwani, R. Sex and Sexual Orientation, Gender and Sexual Preference. Journal of Controversial Ideas 2023 , 3(2), 3; doi:10 .35995/jci03020003 .  \n©2023 Copyright by the authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4 .0) license.  \nI. Introduction  \nAccording to what we can call the “folk” conception of sexual orientation, sexual orientations are based on sex and are two or three in number (homosexuality, heterosexuality, and perhaps bisexuality) . Moreover, which sexual orientation one has depends on the sex of  \nthe people to whom one is attracted (the orientees) and on the sex of the person with the orientation (the orienter) . For example, and roughly put: if X is male and is attracted to other males, X is homosexual; if X is female and is attracted to males, X is heterosexual; if X is attracted to both, X is bisexual. This folk conception used to be commonly held, though its popularity has diminished, especially among younger generations and academics, who seem to have a more expansive understanding of sexual orientation both in terms of its numbers and its bases. In this regard, some philosophers have started either to add gender (which they don’t take to be the same as sex) to sex as a basis of sexual orientation or to altogether replace sex with gender (evidence for this shortly) . This paper argues against this change. It argues that the sex based understanding of sexual orientation is compatible with gender based attractions understood as sexual preferences that operate within a person’s overall sexual orientation, much like other preferences, such as age, height, and skin color do. Hence there is no need to revise the folk conception as far as its basis in sex is concerned.  \nTo elaborate, my aim is to defend one aspect","cbCaiiygyB6RiUbu","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiiygyB6RiUbu","pdf",204704,3,1,23,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n## Folk conception and its decline\n## The paper’s aim and defended thesis\n## Clarifications and scope","[{\"question\":\"What is the “folk” conception of sexual orientation discussed in the paper?\",\"answer\":\"The “folk” conception treats sexual orientation as based on the sex of the person one is attracted to (the orientee), with orientations commonly framed as heterosexuality, homosexuality, and possibly bisexuality.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the paper argue about proposals to add gender or replace sex with gender?\",\"answer\":\"The paper argues against revising the basis of sexual orientation by adding gender or replacing sex with gender, claiming there are no good reasons for doing so and providing reasons against the change.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the proposed sex-based view handle newer or non-folk sexual orientations?\",\"answer\":\"The paper claims a sex-based conception can accommodate sexual orientations that go beyond the folk set, including examples like pansexuality and related orientations, while keeping sex as the basis of attraction in broad 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