Pronouns

Spencer employs pronouns and words denoting sex in the way that was taught to him over fifty years ago.  In Spencer’s view, the traditional terms are the evolved refinement of a great language and the best mode of expression.

Each of the possible alternatives, such as ‘human beings’, ‘Homo sapiens‘, ‘people’, ‘folk’, ‘men and women’, and misuse of the pronoun ‘they’, run into difficulties of expression and ugliness of style that are avoided with the traditional terms.

For this reason, Spencer persists with the traditional terms, despite that using them is now considered by some to be evidence of an under-appreciation of the merits of the female sex or a desire for a society in which men dominate women.  In Spencer’s view, not using the traditional terms is evidence of an under-appreciation of the English language.

Spencer is not a grammarian, but the following guidance on traditional usage is offered:

1. Pay attention to context as it makes a difference
2. ‘mankind’ signifies human beings in general, men, women, children, Homo sapiens.
3. ‘man’ may refer to
   1. an instance of the male human being, as in ‘there’s a man sleeping in the garden shed’
   2. people in general or in numbers, as in ‘when man crossed from Asia into North America thirteen thousand years ago’.  This does not mean that only men and no women made the crossing; it means that human beings did so.
   3. an abstracted notion of the human being, male and female, as in ‘man’s ceaseless quest for self-actualisation’  which includes women’s ceaseless quest for self-actualisation.
4. ‘he’ may refer to
   1. a male human being, as in ‘he robbed the old lady then ran down that alley, constable’
   2. any human being, man, woman or child, as in ‘when the visitor comes to a museum, he should expect to find at least one dinosaur bone’
   3. human beings, considered generally, as in ‘when man crossed to North America, he soon learned to make warm clothing from bison-hides.’  This does not mean that only men and no women made hide clothing.  It means that, by some collective human effort, hide clothing was made.
   4. human beings in the abstract, as in ‘because he is afflicted with mind-body dualism, man is forever in a state of alienation of which he may be only dimly aware’
5. In a context where female humans (real, or in the abstract, singular or several) are the subject, then the terminology is ‘woman’, ‘women’, ‘she’, ‘her’, as appropriate.
6. The terms ‘man’, ‘men’, ‘he’, ‘him’, include women where the context is human beings in general, in the collective, in the abstract.
7. The terms ‘woman’, ‘women’, ‘she’, ‘her’, are used where the context is that of female human beings only, in general, in particular, in the collective, in the abstract.