Apparently, when in doubt, the rule of thumb (at least in philosophy and probably a lot of other areas) is to go with "she."

Because, as a professor of mine once put it, after 500 years of doing that we'll have about balanced out all the books where everyone

referred to was a dude.

But then you get cases where it's not important to the topic that we're talking about guys but where it would've been important to the

*author being discussed's conception of the topic.*

Like Plato would be totally freaked out to read my paper about eros in the Symposium and have it sound like I thought he gave half a shit

That's an interesting issue. :|a

about girls. But obviously we want to approach his thought in a way that can salvage stuff for a world where...ladies exist. =|

Can't you use "they" in the neutral sense?

So, do I turn everyone into an ancient Greek "he" for this or pepper my paper with oddly timeless "she"'s?

...I guess, but I can't help but hear a singular "they" as ungrammatical.

It strikes me as better than the wordy "he or she" or the new shiny neutral pronouns that nobody knows.

Probably! I have seen it recommended as a clean solution in similar situations, but it'd just...bother me to use it in academic writing.

I don't know, this is an "All about what Plato thought!" paper anyway, so maybe I'll fall back on he and then shift to she when I get to the

Yeah, I can understand that. I'm honestly not sure how acceptable it's considered in academics either.

rare "Okay, so what can we do with this?" paragraph.

Also, this is an issue that basically will have no bearing on anything, since my professor will read it like twice and not care either way.

But.

I believe in you!