Rethinking Obligation: A Feminist Method for Political Theory

by Nancy J. Hirschmann

Overview

In Rethinking Obligation, Nancy J. Hirschmann provides an innovative analysis of liberal obligation theory that uses feminism as a theoretical method for rethinking political obligations from the bottom up. In articulating a feminist method for political theory, Hirschmann skillfully brings together theoretical categories and methods previously seen as opposed: feminist standpoint and postmodernism, gender psychology and anti-essentialism, empiricism and interpretivism. Rethinking Obligation mounts a vital challenge to central aspects of liberal theory. Students and scholars of political philosophy, political theory, feminist theory, and women's studies will want to read it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801423093
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	06/11/1992
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.25(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Nancy J. Hirschmann is Professor and Graduate Chair of Political Science at The University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Gender, Class, and Freedom in Modern Political Theory and The Subject of Liberty: Toward a Feminist Theory of Freedom.

Table of Contents

PrefaceIntroduction1. The Problem of Women in Political Obligation2. Contemporary Obligation Theory: Renewed or Recycled? 3. The Argument from Psychology4. Implications for a Feminist Epistemology5. Feminist Epistemology and Political Obligation6. Feminist Obligation and Feminist Theory: A Method for Political TheoryAfterword: Democracy, Difference, and DeconstructionBibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Sandra Harding

Nancy J. Hirschmann provides a brilliant, original, and important analysis of a central notion in social contract theory. She takes a new slant on object relations theory and standpoint epistemology in order to generate a theory of obligation that is in fact capable of advancing participatory democracy. This clear and rigorous account sets a new high standard for political theory and philosophy.

Ian Shapiro

Hirschmann's view of obligation as not rooted in consent but based instead on everyday practices and experiences of women is powerful, and a compelling critique of much liberal theory. Rethinking Obligation will be the standard work applying the psychological insights of object relations theory to politics.

Editorial Reviews

Hirschmann argues that voluntarism in liberal political theory reflects a masculinist propensity to deny relations to others and to repress women. She draws on the resources of gender psychology, object relations theory, and feminist standpoint epistemology to develop this argument.

Philosophical Review

"Nancy J. Hirschmann provides a brilliant, original, and important analysis of a central notion in social contract theory. She takes a new slant on object relations theory and standpoint epistemology in order to generate a theory of obligation that is in fact capable of advancing participatory democracy. This clear and rigorous account sets a new high standard for political theory and philosophy."

Sandra Harding

"Hirschmann's view of obligation as not rooted in consent but based instead on everyday practices and experiences of women is powerful, and a compelling critique of much liberal theory. Rethinking Obligation will be the standard work applying the psychological insights of object relations theory to politics."

Ian Shapiro

"Rethinking Obligation is a highly intelligent and clearly written book, one that should be of great interest to all political theorists, as well as to all those concerned about the gendered nature of our political concepts."

American Political Science Review

"Rethinking Obligation is a highly intelligent and clearly written book, one that should be of great interest to all political theorists, as well as to all those concerned about the gendered nature of our political concepts."—American Political Science Review

"Hirschmann argues that voluntarism in liberal political theory reflects a masculinist propensity to deny relations to others and to repress women. She draws on the resources of gender psychology, object relations theory, and feminist standpoint epistemology to develop this argument."—Philosophical Review

"Rethinking Obligation is a valuable and stimulating contribution to debates about what feminist political theory might and should be."—Political Theory

"Nancy J. Hirschmann provides a brilliant, original, and important analysis of a central notion in social contract theory. She takes a new slant on object relations theory and standpoint epistemology in order to generate a theory of obligation that is in fact capable of advancing participatory democracy. This clear and rigorous account sets a new high standard for political theory and philosophy."—Sandra Harding, author of Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? and The Science Question in Feminism

"Hirschmann's view of obligation as not rooted in consent but based instead on everyday practices and experiences of women is powerful, and a compelling critique of much liberal theory. Rethinking Obligation will be the standard work applying the psychological insights of object relations theory to politics."—Ian Shapiro, author of Democracy's Place

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