Feminist Ethics

by Claudia Card (Editor)

Overview

What is "feminist" about feminist ethics? Do women's voices yield a distinct approach to the study of ethics?

Although they're far from uniform, women's voices, shaped by legacies of sexual politics, differ enough from men's to warrant a separate hearing. In Feminist Ethics feminist philosopher Claudia Card provides the forum. She brings together fifteen new essays on the nature, current state, and implications of feminist ethics, including many by some of the best and best known feminist philosophers in the U.S.

The connecting threads? "Feminist ethics is born of women's refusals to endure with grace the arrogance, indifference, hostility, and damage of oppressively sexist environments," Card writes. Thus, woven throughout feminist writings on ethics run experiences of oppression. From a variety of perspectives the writers of these essays address a fundamental question: If oppressive contexts shape the moral development of the oppressed, what does it mean for the oppressed to resist, to make morally responsible choices, to become moral agents, to develop character?

This volume presents no single answer. Instead, the essays collected here reflect the pluralism and "feistiness" of modern feminism. Subjects range from the history of feminist ethics to the logic of pluralist feminism, presenting feminist perspectives on such unexpected topics as terrorism, bitterness, women trusting other women, and survival and ethics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780700633722
Publisher:	University Press of Kansas
Publication date:	01/05/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	312
File size:	979 KB

About the Author

Claudia Card is professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin and is the coeditor of two anthologies: Religious Commitment and Salvation, with R. R. Ammerman, and Character: Essays in Philosophical Moral Psychology, with Lester Hunt. In addition to philosophy, she teaches teaches courses in women's studies and environmental ethics.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. The Feistiness of Feminism, Claudia Card

Part One. Contexts, Historians, Methods

2. On the Logic of Pluralist Feminism, Maria C. Lugones

3. Ethics of Method: Greasing the Machine and Telling Stories, Joyce Trebilcot

4. A Response to Lesbian Ethics: Why Ethics?, Marilyn Frye

5. Postmodern and Other Skepticisms, Christine Pierce

6. Feminist Ethics: Projects, Problems, Prospects, Alison M. Jagger

Part Two. Character and Moral Agency

7. Why terrorism Is Morally Problematic, Bat-Ami Bar On

8. Philosophy is Not a Luxury, Ruth Ginzberg

9. What’s Wrong with Bitterness?, Lynne McFall

10. The Social Self and the Partiality Debates, Marilyn Friedman

11. Integrity and Radical Change, Victoria M. Davion

Part Three. Questions Concerning Women’s Voices and Care

12. Gender and the Complexity of Moral Voices, Michele Moody-Adams

13. The Virtue of Feeling and the Feeling of Virtue, Elizabeth Spellman

14. Whom Can Women Trust?, Annette C. Baier

15. Some Thoughts about “Caring”, Sarah Lucia Hoagland

Bibliography

The Contributors

Index

Editorial Reviews

Fifteen authors here discuss the ramifications of radical feminist theory on ethical issues and systems. The result, which embraces scholarly dissertations on particular subjects (e.g., terrorism) and personal narratives on culture (e.g., white heterosexualism), is an extremely uneven collection in depth, scope, and style. The contributors are mostly philosophy teachers, and there is a distinct focus on the status of ethical thinking as colored by lesbian experience in contemporary U.S. culture. While a few of the essays are engaging (including those by Joyce Trebilcot, Lynne McFall, and Annette C. Baier), others seem limited to those already in full sympathy with their convictions. For special collections and graduate philosophy students.-- Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley P.L., Cal.

Library Journal

Fifteen essays address subjects ranging from the history of feminist ethics to the logic of pluralist feminism and present feminist perspectives on such topics as terrorism, bitterness, women trusting other women, and survival and ethics. Paper edition (unseen), $14.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

"This fine collection represents the breadth and diversity of work being done at the intersection of feminism and ethics."—Religious Studies Review

"This is a valuable collection that should be useful to established workers in the field as well as those looking for research topics. At the same time, the essays stand on their own and maintain a high level of clarity, which should make them accessible to the general undergraduate reader."—Ethics

"An accessible, well-written, stimulating volume ideal for both mainstream moral philosophy courses and women's studies courses."—Teaching Philosophy

"The best single collection on the nature, current state, and implications of feminist ethics."—Australian Journal of Philosophy

From the Publisher