Alex Byrne (philosopher)

Alex Byrne is a British philosopher. ^[1] He is Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ^[2]

In 2014, he was awarded a Senior Fellowship of the Zukunftskollegs at the University of Konstanz. ^[3]

Writing

Byrne has published several controversial essays on transgender rights and defined women as being "adult human females", a term used by anti-trans activists to exclude trans women from the definition of "woman". ^{[4] [5] [6] [7]}

In 2023, Byrne authored the book Trouble with Gender: Sex Facts, Gender Fictions, which covers the subject of transgender identity. The original publisher, Oxford University Press, backed out of publishing the book after reading the manuscript, claiming Byrne did not address the subject of gender in "a sufficiently serious or respectful way." The book was instead published by Polity Press. ^[1]

In a 2024 New York Times op-ed with his wife, evolutionary biologist Carole Hooven, ^[8] the pair criticized the increasingly common phrase "sex assigned at birth", arguing "sex is a fundamental biological feature with significant consequences for our species, so there are costs to misconceptions about it". ^{[9] [10] [11]}

On June 26, 2025, Byrne wrote an opinion article in The Washington Post claiming to be one of the authors of the Trump administration's report on gender-affirming care for minors. The HHS did not identify the authors in the report itself and in his article, Byrne did not identify any of the eight other authors he said were involved. ^{[12] [4]}

Books

• Trouble With Gender: Sex Facts, Gender Fictions (Polity, 2023) ^{[13] [14] [15]}
• Transparency and Self-Knowledge (Oxford University Press, 2018) ^{[16] [17] [18] [19]}

Editor

• with David R. Hilbert Readings on Color, Volume 1: The Philosophy of Color (MIT Press, 1997)
• with David R. Hilbert Readings on Color, Vol. 2: The Science of Color (MIT Press, 1997)
• Fact and Value (2001)

References

1. Beal, James (September 1, 2023). "Oxford dropped my book for challenging gender, says author". The Sunday Times. Retrieved July 20, 2025.
2. "Alex Byrne". MIT Philosophy.
3. "Senior Fellows".
4. "Philosopher's Apparent Role in Government's "Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria" Report Revealed by Metadata (updated)". Daily Nous . May 5, 2025. Retrieved June 27, 2025.
5. "Sex and Gender Identity: Byrne's Philosophical Perspective". ResearchGate . June 19, 2025. Retrieved July 8, 2025.
6. "An MIT philosopher's call for a civil discussion on gender and sex". Massachusetts Institute of Technology. February 20, 2024. Retrieved July 8, 2025.
7. "Deflating Byrne's "Are Women Adult Human Females?"". Journal of Controversial Ideas . April 25, 2021. Retrieved July 8, 2025.
8. Billen, Andrew (August 1, 2025). "The ex-Harvard professor 'off the leash' on the trans debate". The Times .
9. Gorman, Sara; Gorman, Jack M. (June 29, 2024). "The Debate About Sex Assigned at Birth". Psychology Today .
10. Foley, Ryan (April 8, 2024). "MIT, Harvard professors admonish use of 'sex assigned at birth'". Christian Post .
11. Byrne, Alex; Hooven, Carole (April 3, 2024). "The Problem With Saying 'Sex Assigned at Birth'". New York Times .
12. Byrne, Alex (June 26, 2025). "I co-wrote the anonymous HHS report on pediatric gender medicine". Washington Post. Retrieved June 27, 2025.
13. Coleman, Rachel (February 13, 2024). "What's at Stake in Sexual Difference? A Review of Trouble with Gender: Sex Facts, Gender Fictions by Alex Byrne". Public Discourse .
14. Kodsi, Daniel (September 16, 2024). "Unexceptional Sex". The Philosophers' Magazine .
15. Gambotto-Burke, Antonella (September 22, 2023). "Can you really demand to become a woman?". The Australian .
16. Peterson, Jared. "Transparency and Self-Knowledge". Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.
17. Bar-On, Dorit; and Johnson, Drew (2025). "'Transparent' rules and basic self-knowledge: a critical study of Alex Byrne's transparency and self-knowledge" . Inquiry. 0: 1–43. doi:10.1080/0020174X.2025.2476219 – via Taylor and Francis+NEJM.
18. Paul, Sarah K. (July 1, 2020). "Transparency and Self-Knowledge" . The Philosophical Review. 129 (3): 480–484. doi:10.1215/00318108-8311460 – via Silverchair.
19. Doyle, Casey (May 4, 2019). "Transparency and self-knowledge, by Alex Byrne. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018, xi + 227 pp. ISBN: 9780198821618. hb £30.00" . European Journal of Philosophy. 27 (2): 515–518. doi:10.1111/ejop.12459 – via Wiley Online Library.

External links

• Official website