In many ways, the struggle for gay and lesbian rights has come of age, and mainstream politics in the USA shows signs of embracing the votes and monetary contributions of organized gay and lesbian constituents. But the author warns that a movement for sexual liberation pays too high a price when it mimics a conservative language of “family values.” Since the framework of “family” language is implicated in structures of heteronormativity and patriarchy, sexual liberation that plays the “family language” game (...) will be drawn into a narrowing politics of nondiscrimination. Furthermore, argues the author, the right to marry cannot be considered a human right, since it is always bound to local statutes and custom. Therefore, gay and lesbian liberation that seeks truly universalizable principles will do better to not ensnare its struggle in “family values.”. (shrink)

This book argues that Wittgenstein provides an original and viable alternative to both a realist conception of truth conditions, on the one hand, and semantic anti-realism, on the other. Ellenbogen’s advancement of this alternative rests heavily upon what she calls Wittgenstein’s dictum that meaning is use, as well as his notion of criteria. Ellenbogen argues that according to Wittgenstein, it is correct to predicate “is true” of something when the criterion for calling it true is met. Questions of truth, she (...) argues, are questions of meaning. (shrink)