@article {1359, title = {The Role of the {\textquotedblleft}Private{\textquotedblright} in Inter-Gender Misunderstanding}, journal = {Organon F}, volume = {24}, number = {2}, year = {2017}, pages = {142-165}, type = {State}, abstract = {In this paper, I use Wittgenstein{\textquoteright}s private language argument for reflecting on some folk-linguistic misconceptions. In Section 1, I show that elements of the private language semantics inform common ways of looking at some situations referred to as {\textquotedblleft}misunderstandings{\textquotedblright}. I suggest that it would be appropriate to conceive of the alleged misunderstandings as practical attitudes of mistreatment. This suggestion is explored in Section 2, which is devoted to a commonly assumed prominent example of the problem: the so-called inter-gender misunderstanding. It is believed that men and women use language in systematically different ways, as a result of which they do not understand each other properly, because they miss what their interlocutors {\textquotedblleft}mean{\textquotedblright}. The conceptual apparatus of mentalist semantics presumed here is abused in order to advocate morally reprehensible actions against women. In Section 3, I suggest that the Wittgensteinian accounts of language and mind offer arguments for denying private conceptions of understanding on the grounds of both philosophy of language and ethics.}, keywords = {gendered languages, misunderstanding, private language, sexual violence}, url = {http://www.klemens.sav.sk/fiusav/doc/organon/2017/2/142-165.pdf}, author = {Beran, Ond{\v r}ej} }