Cabrillo College
Introduction to Philosophy – Philo. 4
Claudia Close
Summer 2015
Case Study #2: Free Will and Caitlyn Jenner
Read the sections on d’Holbach and Sartre in the chapter on Freedom in our text and the attached
piece from The New York Times. The completed assignment should be three pages long,
(approximately 2000 words) using 12 pt. fonts and single spacing with one inch margins.
Please follow the assigned format as shown in the example provided with the first case study.
Each answer should be separated, numbered and proportionate to the number of points possible.
Please refer to Case Study #1 for detailed instructions, rubrics and sample completed assignment.
This study is worth a total of 100 points
Your completed assignment is due on the 11th (MW)/ 12th (TTh) of May.
No late case studies will be accepted!1
Questions:
1. Paraphrase the argument presented by Buzz Bissinger in Ravi Somaiya’s article (see
attached) from The New York Times concluding that Jenner’s transition has been freely
chosen. (10 points)
2. Asking the Right Questions: The big question here is whether Jenner’s or anyone’s
gender identity is freely chosen. But before you can answer this question about free will,
you need to gather some evidence and critical information. What facts would you need to
know about this case to make a reasonably informed judgment? In this section, note that
you should be raising questions such as medical discoveries on gender assignment,
historical data and demographics on transgendered populations, the cost of surgery,
religious and legal treatments of the procedure, etc. but not questions about d’Holbach or
Sartre. Provide as a bulleted list and pose in question form. For this assignment, you do
not have to do the research but you need to raise the kind of questions that would drive
such a project. These should be research questions and as such should be data-driven,
concrete and answerable. (20 points)
3. Would d’Holbach argue that Jenner’s identity was freely chosen? Defend your answer
including specific details from d’Holbach’s hard determinism & provide citations from
d’Holbach (primary source = d’Holbach’s writings and does not include secondary
commentary from Solomon or from me) to support your answer. Include d’Holbach’s
notion of what it would take for someone to be called free and be very specific regarding the
causes which d’Holbach would regard as causally relevant. (30 points)
4. Would Sartre argue that Jenner’s identity was freely chosen? Defend your answer
using specific details from Sartre’s existentialism & provide citations from Sartre (primary
source = Sartre’s writings and does not include secondary commentary from Solomon
or from me) to support your answer. Be sure to include a discussion of Sartre’s point that
we are still free even if our choices are determined by prior causes (which would include
1
This policy may be waived if extraordinarily strong justification can be presented and documentation is provided.
biological and neurological states) and might even at some point become utterly predictable
if those causes are known. (30 points)
5. Conclusion: Where do you stand on this issue? Having considered the relevant facts and
the arguments you have gleaned using d’Holbach and Sartre, do you think that someone
freely chooses their gender identity? Briefly defend your answer without resorting to a
repetition of points made in previous sections. (10 points)
Background2: Case Study #2
Caitlyn Jenner, Formerly Bruce, Introduces Herself in
Vanity Fair3
By RAVI SOMAIYA
JUNE 1, 2015
Caitlyn Jenner, formerly Bruce Jenner, in a photograph by Annie Leibovitz on
the cover of July's Vanity Fair.
In April, Bruce Jenner spoke about her transition to being
a woman in a television special that drew nearly 17 million
viewers.
On Monday, that woman revealed her new
identity, appearing as Caitlyn Jenner on the cover of
Vanity Fair. The photograph of Ms. Jenner in a corset,
shot by Annie Leibovitz and accompanied by the headline
“Call Me Caitlyn,” immediately became a sensation on
social media when the magazine posted the article online.
Ms. Jenner, 65, who won an Olympic gold medal in the
decathlon, has had a long public life. As Bruce Jenner, she
had been on the cover of Playgirl, an author, an actor and
most recently a part of the Kardashian family’s reality television empire. Earlier this
year, reports emerged that Bruce Jenner was in the process of becoming a woman.
2
Please note that you are not limited to the background offered – you may feel free to use any credible/reliable
source as evidence for your arguments. Please provide full citation for all research.
3
Somaiya, Ravi. "Caitlyn Jenner, Formerly Bruce, Introduces Herself in Vanity Fair." The New York Times. The New
York Times, 01 June 2015. Web. 07 June 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/02/business/media/jennerreveals-new-name-in-vanity-fair-article.html>.
The Vanity Fair article represents the latest in a carefully calibrated series of public
steps by Ms. Jenner and her team, as she moves toward the debut of a new reality show
on the E! network that will begin at the end of July, and a new public life as a woman.
A Twitter account, in the name of Caitlyn Jenner, was started at the same time that the
Vanity Fair article was published online. Within hours, the account had more than 1.1
million followers.
When asked about the perception from some that the article was part of an orchestrated
campaign by Ms. Jenner, Vanity Fair’s editor, Graydon Carter, said that “all stories are
part of some coordinated rollout, all stories everywhere,” citing movie releases and even
presidential campaigns.
The article was written by Buzz Bissinger, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and the
author of the acclaimed book “Friday Night Lights,” about a high school football team in
Texas. The magazine had first thought of running an article on Ms. Jenner last year, a
spokeswoman said, but it began taking shape this year when a publicist for Ms. Jenner
contacted an editor at Vanity Fair.
A truly news-making magazine cover story has become increasingly rare in the digital
age, though Mr. Carter said that the covers of magazines remain cultural touchstones.
(The online rollout of the article seemed to tacitly acknowledge that rarity; the physical
copy of the magazine with Ms. Jenner on the cover won’t be available at newsstands
until June 9. The online version of the article could be purchased for $4.99, and the
website had broken its traffic record in just a few hours, with more than 6 million
unique visitors.)
Bruce Jenner and Diane Sawyer in an ABC
News special in April, in which Ms. Jenner
first spoke openly about transitioning to a
woman. CreditABC News
Vanity Fair went to
extraordinary lengths to keep its
scoop a secret, a spokeswoman
said.
Only a few people at the
magazine knew about the article.
It was held on a computer that
was kept in a locked office and
not connected to the magazine’s
server. There was security at the photo shoot and at the plant where the magazine is
printed.
Mr. Bissinger said in a telephone interview that he was assigned to write the article
because “of the sports connection, and my own journey into the world of crossdressing,” referring to a revealing article he wrote for GQ magazine in 2013 in which he
detailed his fondness for designer clothing intended for both genders.
He first met with Ms. Jenner in February, he said, and was allowed “pretty much carte
blanche to be there, to soak him up, to have access to other people in his life,” he said.
“It was the kind of journalism you don’t see any more.” Mr. Carter said the magazine
was not forced to leave any details out.
Mr. Bissinger, who describes himself in the article as “a cross-dresser with a big-time
fetish for women’s leather,” wrote that he spent hundreds of hours with Ms. Jenner over
three months, and that it was an occasionally surreal experience.
Ms. Jenner had started to make the transition in the 1980s, the Vanity Fair article
reveals, shortly after winning the gold medal at the Montreal Olympics in 1976. Even as
she traveled the United States, making speeches and starring in commercials, she wore
pantyhose and a bra underneath her suit. She stopped, fearful of the public reaction, but
began again recently when her marriage to Kris Jenner, the matriarch of the
Kardashians, ended.
“If I was lying on my deathbed and I had kept this secret and never did anything about
it, I would be lying there saying, ‘You just blew your entire life,’ ” she told Mr. Bissinger.
Bruce Jenner was always lying, she said; Caitlyn can be honest.
“Is she doing a TV show? Sure,” Mr. Bissinger said. “Is she doing it for money
personally? Sure. This is America. But I saw a person transformed into a woman, who is
joyous and happy and free and living life in a way that Bruce Jenner never did.”
A version of this article appears in print on June 2, 2015, on page B1 of the New York
edition with the headline: Caitlyn Jenner, Formerly Bruce, Introduces Herself. Order
Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe