Historical Dictionary of Feminist Philosophy (Historical Dictionaries of Religions, Philosophies, and Movements Series)
Catherine Villanueva Gardner
Language: English
Pages: 296
ISBN: 0810853469
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Having only emerged in the past few decades, Feminist Philosophy is rapidly developing its own thrust in areas of particular importance to feminism-and women more generally-while also reevaluating and reshaping most other fields of philosophy, from ethics to logic and Marxism to environmentalism. It draws not only on feminist philosophers but criticizes, approves, or appropriates the work of the leading philosophers of all times.
The introduction to this reference work provides a useful overview of the subject area and the chronology runs the gamut from Ancient Greek philosophers to contemporary feminist ones. The cross-referenced dictionary entries cover both the central figures and ideas from the historical tradition of philosophy, as well as ideas and theories from contemporary feminist philosophy, such as epistemology (the philosophy of science) and topics that have been introduced by the feminist movement itself, like abortion and sexuality. In addition to including entries on Aristotle, Plato, Descartes, Kant, Wollstonecraft, Beauvoir, and Daly, relevant aspects of other fields of philosophy, the major concepts, and prevailing interpretations and conjectures are also covered. A comprehensive bibliography allows for further reading.
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over their lives, which is a charac- INTRODUCTION • xxxv teristic of the traditional political subject. Those feminist philosophers who aim to develop a distinctly feminist theory of justice agree that a just society is one that is free of oppressive social hierarchies. Beyond this, there is little agreement on what a feminist theory of justice would comprise. Feminist social and political philosophy can be credited with bringing to the fore issues that are of particular concern to women, or
thinking that underpin and maintain the inequality of women. Barre uses the method to show that female inequality is simply a case of prejudice based on social custom; it is not a fundamental truth about human nature. Furthermore, he argues, if he can show that the Cartesian method could be used to refute what he describes as the oldest and most deeply ingrained prejudice, then it follows that nothing should be taken as true without proper examination. Once the prejudice against women has been
personal is political,’’ small groups of women would meet to share what they had hitherto seen as merely personal or individual experiences. This sharing would then lead the group to see common themes in these experiences: that female oppression is structural and institutionalized. The participants would then work toward strategies for social and political change. Consciousness raising has played an important role in opening up the possibilities for a specifically feminist mode of gaining knowl-
philosophy is the consideration of possible ways in which the canon can be appropriated for feminist use, although some feminist philosophers maintain that the sexism of the canon is too engrained for the canon to form a politically legitimate foundation. The third central strand is the recovery of neglected or forgotten women philosophers from the past. Coming out of these strands is one of the central projects of feminist history of philosophy: the examination of the enterprise and ideals of
126 • KANT, IMMANUEL dem with this, the respect that we show for the rationality in others requires that we do not restrict the autonomy of others. Feminist philosophers argue that the ideals of independence and autonomy, required for a Kantian moral agent, exclude women, in the sense that women’s role in marriage is, by definition, one of support and responsibility for another. For Kant, the human capacity for rationality does not just mean that we are the makers of the moral law that directs
