Feminist Philosophy Commons^™

The Perpetual Creation And Provocation Of The Self, Krista Damico

Senior Honors Projects

The Perpetual Creation and Provocation of the Self

Krista D’Amico

Faculty Sponsor: Stephen Barber, English

This project consists of four related parts. The first part is a critical and creative work of prose in which I converse with the thought of two philosophers, namely Spinoza and Gilles Deleuze. This conversation enables me to present my own thought and subjectivity in relationship to a very important aspect of my life: music-making. The second part of my project is a critical essay in which I contemplate the work of another artist, Virginia Woolf, and the way that her credo Three Guineas (1938) …

Rethinking Ruddick And The Ethnocentrism Critique Of Maternal Thinking, Jean Keller

Philosophy Faculty Publications

In the early 1990s, Sara Ruddick's Maternal Thinking was criticized for harboring a latent ethnocentrism. Ruddick responded to these critiques in the 1995 edition of her book, but her response has not yet been addressed in the feminist philosophical literature. This essay addresses this lacuna in the scholarship on Ruddick. In the last installment of this critique, Alison Bailey and Patrice DiQuinzio suggested that the only way for Ruddick to avoid the ethnocentrism charge would require her near-universalistic claims about mothering to be rejected in favor of 'particularized, localized accounts of mothering.' In this essay I'll show that this claim …

Feminist Aesthetics And The Neglect Of Natural Beauty, Sheila Lintott

Faculty Journal Articles

Feminist philosophy has taken too long to engage seriously with aesthetics and has been even slower in confronting natural beauty in particular. There are various possible reasons for this neglect, including the relative youth of feminist aesthetics, the possibility that feminist philosophy is not relevant to nature aesthetics, the claim that natural beauty is not a serious topic, hesitation among feminists to perpetuate women's associations with beauty and nature, and that the neglect may be merely apparent. Discussing each of these possibilities affords a better understanding of, but none justify the neglect of natural beauty in feminist aesthetics.

How Should Feminist Autonomy Theorists Respond To The Problem Of Internalized Oppression?, Sonya Charles

Philosophy and Religious Studies Department Faculty Publications

In "Autonomy and the Feminist Intuition," Natalie Stoljar asks whether a procedural or a substantive approach to autonomy is best for addressing feminist concerns. In this paper, I build on Stoljar's argument that feminists should adopt a strong substantive approach to autonomy. After briefly reviewing the problems with a purely procedural approach, I begin to articulate my own strong substantive theory by focusing specifically on the problem of internalized oppression. In the final section, I briefly address some of the concerns raised by procedural theorists who are leery of a substantive approach.

Woolf, Narrative Space And Female Writers: The Different Implications On Female Passion Described Between The Brontes' And Jane Austen's Use Of Gendered And Class-Divided Narrative Spaces, Mary Howard '10

Honor Scholar Theses

Virginia Woolf explored, through various essays, what it means to be a female writer: the history, challenges, and societal implications. Recently, many of Woolf's ideas have been attacked by current literary figures such as Adrienne Rich. In particular, Woolf's assertions about passion and the female writer stir debate and controversy. In Virginia Woolf's essays on women and writing, she explores female passion and specifically contrasts Austen with the Brontës. Woolf suggests that Austen's restrained expression of passion is more meaningful than the overstated passion in the Brontë novels. However, while Woolf focuses on the novels' passion, closer analysis reveals that …

The Biopolitical Unconscious: Not-All Persons Are Political, Ross G. Shields

Media and Cultural Studies Honors Projects

It is a tenet of post-structuralist theory that discursive series fail in their attempts to constitute themselves as totalities. A system can fail in two distinct ways—from Kant’s dynamic and mathematic failures of reason, to Jacques Lacan’s equation of the two failures of language with the two failures (male and female) of sex. Biopolitical theory offers the most recent account of failure and collapse, now on the geopolitical scale. Given that the biopolitical subject too is sexed, this thesis asks the question: How does biopolitics fail? Franz Kafka’s aborted novels offer a premonition to a possible answer.

Toward A Theory Of Feminist Hospitality, Maurice Hamington

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Immigration, international conflicts, and world debt have contributed to rising unease over the power relations created by burgeoning globalization. Absent from much of the political rhetoric surrounding global issues is a role for the social value of hospitality. Political theorists and philosophers such as the late Jacques Derrida and Emmanuel Levinas have reinvigorated interest in hospitality. This article suggests that the work of feminist theorists such as Seyla Benhabib, Margaret Urban Walker, and Iris Marion Young on issues of identity, inclusiveness, reciprocity, forgiveness, and embodiment can contribute to an alternative theory of hospitality. Consistent with feminist care ethics, the theory …

Peg Birmingham: Hannah Arendt And Human Rights: The Predicament Of Common Responsibility, Dianna Taylor

Philosophy

No abstract provided.

On The Status Of Women In Philosophy

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

Most of the time and in the most important and everyday ways, the status of women in philosophy departments is nugatory. But as opposed to projects proposing to “socialize” or "domesticate" men in the hopes of thereby changing the culture of university or academic philosophy (a bootless undertaking in the barest empirical sense), I submit that one might better extend the traditional privileges of intellectual preoccupation and distraction (and so on) to women professors of philosophy and not only to men as those who currently profit from just these privileges. In addition to a limited discussion of men’s shoes, the …

Trojan Women And Devil Baby Tales: Jane Addams On Domestic Violence, Marilyn Fischer

Philosophy Faculty Publications

In this discussion I will show how Addams used these bodies of knowledge in shaping a pragmatist-feminist analysis of the devil baby tales and of domestic violence. Pragmatists begin with people's concrete experience within specific, lived contexts and then return to experience to test their theories and concepts. Feminist pragmatists such as Addams give women's experiences central place. In her analysis of the devil baby tales and domestic violence, Addams presents the most marginalized women, not merely as victims, but as agents and artists in their own right.

On Perfect Friendship: An Outline And A Guide To Aristotle's Philosophy Of Friendship, Kristen Psaty

Honors Theses

Providing insight into such timeless questions as: What is friendship? Are the best friends similar or dissimilar? and Does having friends make you a better person?, the paper addresses the importance of friendship for Aristotle, but also for the modern reader as well. A topic of special philosophical concern, Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) considered friendship to be necessary in achieving a virtuous and fulfilling life. Consequently, he wrote more about friendship than any other virtue he presented. This paper lays the foundation for understanding Aristotle’s philosophy of friendship as well as its position within his larger moral schema. The image of …

Using Rights To Counter “Gender-Specific” Wrongs, Theresa W. Tobin

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

One popular strategy of opposition to practices of female genital cutting (FCG) is rooted in the global feminist movement. Arguing that women’s rights are human rights, global feminists contend that practices of FGC are a culturally specific manifestation of gender-based oppression that violates a number of rights. Many African feminists resist a women’s rights approach. They argue that by focusing on gender as the primary axis of oppression affecting the African communities where FGC occurs, a women’s rights approach has misrepresented African women as passive victims who need to be rescued from African men and has obscured the role of …

On The Status Of Women In Philosophy Or Great Men, Little Black Dresses, & The Virtues Of Keeping One’S Feet On The Ground, Babette Babich

Working Papers

No abstract provided.

Addams And Dewey: Pragmatism, Expression, And Community, Marilyn Fischer

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Chicago in the 1890s was home to two remarkable institutions, started by two remarkable activist-philosophers, experimenting with ideas and with social change. The first was Hull House, a social settlement, founded by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr in 1889. The second was the Laboratory School, an experimental school opened in 1896 by John Dewey, along with teachers Katherine Camp Mayhew and Anna Camp Edwards. Interaction was constant between the residents of Hull House and the teachers of the Laboratory School, as the participants learned from and taught each other. Through Hull House and the Laboratory School, Addams and Dewey …

A Response To Bruni And Sugden, Julie A. Nelson

Economics Faculty Publication Series

An article by Luigino Bruni and Robert Sugden published in this journal argues that market relations contain elements of what they call ‘fraternity’. This Response demonstrates that my own views on interpersonal relations and markets – which originated in the feminist analysis of caring labour – are far closer to Bruni and Sugden's than they acknowledge in their article, and goes on to discuss additional important dimensions of sociality that they neglect.

Ciis Today, Fall 2008 Issue, Ciis

CIIS Today

This volume is the Fall 2008 issue of CIIS Today, the Magazine of the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Racism And The Political Romance Of The Browning Of America, Ronald Sundstrom

Philosophy

The browning of America promises the bodily, social, and political transfor- mation of the United States, and as with all ethno-racial threats—or promises of deliverance—browning operates through the private, intimate arenas of love, sexuality, gender, family, and friendship. As a demographic idea, the “browning of America” gathers together Native Americans, African Ameri- cans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Americans with a multiracial identity, as well as non-white immigrants. In popular culture, however, it primarily con- notes the expanding population of Latinos, and Mexican and Latin American immigrants. Secondarily, it includes the growing social and political presence of multiracial Americans, those who …

Writing The World: Ursula K. Le Guin And Margaret Atwood’S Literary Contributions To Ecofeminism, Melissa Messer

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Along with the philosophical writings of ecofeminism’s greatest proponents and critics, the growth of ecofeminist philosophy has relied heavily on fiction writers. The term ecofeminism was coined in 1975, and the following year ecofeminism found fertile ground for exploration and growth in March Peircy’s science fiction novel, Woman on the Edge of Time (1976). The social, academic, and literary trends leading up to the emergence of ecofeminism, however, began well before 1975. Both Ursula K. Le Guin and Margaret Atwood are speculative fiction authors whose work before and after 1975 examines important ecofeminist topics and contributes to the growth of …

On Their Own Ground: Strategies Of Resistance For Sunni Muslim Women, Theresa W. Tobin

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

Drawing from work in feminist moral philosophy, Tobin argues that the most common methodology used in practical ethics is a questionable methodology for addressing practical problems across diverse cultural contexts because the kind of impartiality it requires is neither feasible nor desirable. She then defends an alternative methodology for practical ethics in a global context and uses her proposed methodology to evaluate a problem that confronts many Sunni Muslim women around the world.

Caring Globally: Jane Addams, World War One, And International Hunger, Marilyn Fischer

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Several feminist philosophers, including Virginia Held, Joan Tronto, and Fiona Robinson, see the need for, and the potential of, care ethics for achieving far-reaching political and even global transformation. Tronto recommends that care be used as "a basis for political change" and a "strategy for organizing" (Tronto 1993, 175). Held advocates that "the ethics of care should transform international politics and relations between states as well as within them" (Held 2006, 161).

During and immediately after World War One, Jane Addams attempted to do just that. She sought to bring perspectives and moral sensibilities that have since been theorized in …

Can We Talk? Feminist Economists In Dialogue With Social Theorists, Julie A. Nelson

Economics Faculty Publication Series

The article focuses on the issues regarding the social and political theory of feminism. It has been mentioned that political action will be dynamized rather than compromised by a more alive observation of economic organizations and activities. The author has suggested that feminist social theorists across the disciplines must join the several feminist economists who are dropping the negative one-size-fits-all prescription of protection from markets. It is essential to have more positive results in the complex contemporary economies.

Feminism And The Art Of Interpretation: Or, Reading The First Wave To Think About The Second And Third Waves, Marilyn Fischer

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Cory, my daughter, accuses me of having no thoughts of my own. I was talking with Jeremy [“Cory, what do you call him? partner? significant other? boyfriend?” “Mom, I just call him Jeremy.” Alright, then.]. Jeremy asked why I was an almost pacifist. Without even breathing, I launched into Addams’s arguments for pacifism, fully attributed to her, of course. That’s when Cory accused me of having no thoughts of my own. So, if I have no thoughts of my own, inhabiting Addams’s thoughts is not a bad substitute.

Remembering how Addams viewed much of her work as interpreting American institutions …

Hormone Research As An Exemplar Of Underdetermination, P.D. Magnus

Philosophy Faculty Scholarship

Debates about the underdetermination of theory by data often turn on specific examples. Many cases are invoked often enough that they become familiar, even well-worn. Here I consider one such commonplace: the connection between prenatal hormone levels and gender-linked childhood behavior. Since Helen Longino's original discussion of this case a decade-and-a-half ago, it has become become one of the stock examples of underdetermination. However, the case is not genuinely underdetermined. We can easily imagine a possible experiment to decide the question. The fact that we would not perform this experiment is a moral, rather than epistemic, point. Further, I argue …

Burn The Panopticon: Irigaray's Ethics, Difference, Poetics, Simone Roberts

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph of Prologue]

The following essay has a purpose more than a thesis. This essay explains the central tenets of Irigaray's ethics of sexual difference through an understanding her work as that of a symbolist philosopher. Symbolist poetry and French Feminist philosophy like Irigaray's have several qualities in common. One is that the literal level of language is not where the action is. A reader must think associatively on many levels at once in order to gather and interpret the several indirect messages sent by a particular image or metaphor. Another is an acquired comfort with paradox. Paradoxes lie …

Masochism: A Queer Subjectivity?, Amber Musser

Publications and Research

Judith Butler's Gender Trouble elaborates what may be called a queer subjectivity. Characterized by non-essential, performative identity, her theory has been criticized because, according to its critics, it does not give the subject political agency. Liberal theorists, such as Seyla Benhabib, have been particularly concerned with the political effects of this form of subjectivity on already marginalized social groups while other theorists, such as Susan Stryker and Ed Cohen, have articulated concern that the theory does not sufficiently account for embodiment, affect, and identity. This essay brings Deleuze's theory of masochism in dialogue with Butler's theories of subjectivity in an …

Practicing Practicing, Ladelle Mcwhorter

Philosophy Faculty Publications

"There is something ludicrous in philosophical discourse," Michel Foucault writes, "when it tries, from the outside, to dictate to others, to tell them where their truth is and how to find it... " (Foucault 1985, 9). In our age of moral relativism and multiculturalism, it is easy to hear in this sentence a simple condemnation of intellectuals who pose as authorities on questions of belief, and it is all too easy to agree; yes, of course, we ought not tell other people what to think. But given the issues, directions, and investments of Foucault's work, especially in The Use of …

Work, Sex, And Sex-Work: Competing Feminist Discourses On The International Sex Trade, Kate Sutherland

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article explores the competing discourses of radical feminism and sex radicalism on the international sex trade. These voices have been dominant in feminist debates on this issue and both have proved significant forces when it comes to legal reform. Radical feminists characterize prostitution as an abuse of human rights, regardless of whether it is forced or voluntary, and have fought for its abolition. They have had a substantial impact on the development and adoption of anti-trafficking legislation and instruments in various countries and at the international level. Sex radicals have offered compelling opposition, shifting the focus from the abolition …

Sublime Hunger: A Consideration Of Eating Disorders Beyond Beauty, Sheila Lintott

Faculty Journal Articles

n this paper, I argue that one of the most intense ways women are encouraged to enjoy sublime experiences is via attempts to control their bodies through excessive dieting. If this is so, then the societal-cultural contributions to the problem of eating disorders exceed the perpetuation of a certain beauty ideal to include the almost universal encouragement women receive to diet, coupled with the relative shortage of opportunities women are afforded to experience the sublime.

The Mammography Screening Controversy: Who And What Is Heard In The Press?, Sonya Charles, Margaret Holmes-Rovner

Philosophy and Religious Studies Department Faculty Publications

The objective of this project was to analyze newspaper coverage of the January 2000 meta-analysis by Gotzsche and Olsen, “Is screening for breast cancer with mammography justified?” [Lancet 355 (2000) 129]. A content analysis was performed on a comprehensive set of newspaper clippings from the UK during the 2 weeks following publication of the Lancet article. The original authors were most quoted in Wave 1 (the first weekend); the screening programme was most quoted in Wave 2 (week 2). Screening programme description, and the “quality” of the Lancet article dominated Wave 1; patient testimonials increased in Wave 2. Newspaper articles …

Gen Ms 18 Eleanor Humes Haney Papers Finding Aid, John D. Knowlton

Search the General Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Description:

Eleanor Humes Haney was a feminist theologian and community activist in Maine from 1979 until her death in 1999. The Papers cover issues related to her work, including feminism, anti-racism, LGBT issues, and the environment.

Date Range:

1979-1999

Size of Collection:

2 ft.