Setting the Moral Compass: Essays by Women Philosophers (Studies in Feminist Philosophy) PDF
Preview Setting the Moral Compass: Essays by Women Philosophers (Studies in Feminist Philosophy)
Setting the Moral Compass: Essays by Women Philosophers CHESHIRE CALHOUN, Editor OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Setting the Moral Compass studies in feminist philosophy , Cheshire Calhoun Series Editor advisory board SusanBordo,UniversityofKentucky HarryBrod,TempleUniversity ClaudiaCard,UniversityofWisconsin LorraineCode,YorkUniversity,Toronto KimberleCrenshaw,ColumbiaLawSchool/UCLASchoolofLaw JaneFlax,HowardUniversity AnnGarry,CaliforniaStateUniversity,LosAngeles SallyHaslanger,MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology HildeHein,CollegeoftheHolyCross AlisonJaggar,UniversityofColorado,Boulder HelenLongino,UniversityofMinnesota MariaLugones,SUNYBinghamton UmaNarayan,VassarCollege JamesSterba,UniversityofNotreDame RosemarieTong,UniversityofNorthCarolina,Charlotte NancyTuana,PennStateUniversity KarenWarren,MacalesterCollege IrisMarionYoung,UniversityofChicago published in the series: GenderintheMirror:ConfoundingImagery DianaTietjensMeyers Autonomy,Gender,Politics MarilynFriedman AbortionandSocialResponsibility LaurieShrage SettingtheMoralCompass EditedbyCheshireCalhoun edited by cheshire calhoun Setting the Moral Compass essays by women philosophers 1 2004 3 Oxford NewYork Auckland Bangkok BuenosAires CapeTown Chennai DaresSalaam Delhi HongKong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Mumbai Nairobi Sa˜oPaulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto Copyright2004byOxfordUniversityPress,Inc. PublishedbyOxfordUniversityPressInc. 198MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NewYork10016 www.oup.com OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,orotherwise, withoutthepriorpermissionofOxfordUniversityPress. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Settingthemoralcompass:essaysbywomenphilosophers/editedbyCheshireCalhoun. p.cm.—(Studiesinfeministphilosophy) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN0-19-515474-6;ISBN0-19-515475-4(pbk.) 1.Ethics.2.Feministethics. I.Calhoun,Cheshire.II.Series. BJ1395.S482003 170′.82—dc21 2003048636 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica onacid-freepaper Preface WhenIfirstthoughtaboutcreatingacollectionofworkinmoralphilosophy,this is not the collection I originally imagined. Hilde Lindemann Nelson had sug- gested to me that I put together an anthology of work in feminist ethics, and my first thought was to do one in feminist virtue ethics. But as I began the work of selectingcontributorsandwritingaproposal,Ifoundmyselfincreasinglydisinter- ested in that task. Instead, I began to think about all the women moral philoso- phers I have read since the early 1980s whom I have admired, been inspired by, and learned so much from, particularly how to write philosophy that speaks to ordinary moral experience. I wanted all of these women in one book so that I could honor (at least some of) the women who have made moral philosophy a place where women can work. And I wanted to see their work, finally, in one place becauseit seemedto me thatthere wassome importantway in whichthey arekindredphilosophicalminds.Buttherewasonesizableobstacletopublishing such a collection: there didn’t seem to be a rationale for bringing the diverse set ofphilosophersIhadinmindintoonecollection.Therewasnoobviousprinciple of unity. Some of the authors were doing explicitly feminist philosophical work addressed primarily to other feminist thinkers. Others were squarely engaged in nonfeminist philosophical conversations with other moral philosophers, most of whom were men. So this couldn’t be a collection of feminist ethics. But there was no other obvious thematic unity to call upon because the sorts of moral phi- losophy they did were quite different. The only alternative was to envision the bookasakindoffestschrift,honoringwomenwhohavecontributedinimportant waystomoralphilosophy.Butthis,too,wasanunsatisfactoryframe—notbecause thecontributorsdidn’tdeservetobehonored (surelytheydo)butbecausewhatI wanted to bring into view was the nonaccidental fact that all of the philosophers Ifeltwerekindredmindswerewomen.Sothis,intheend,istheconvictionthat unifies this volume: gender makes a difference. The difference it makes is some- times subtle, often unpredictable, and is compatible with deep philosophical dis- vi preface agreementsamongwomenphilosophers.Butthefieldofmoralphilosophywould notbethesamewithoutthewomenphilosopherswhohelpedconstructit.Itwill be differentyet in afuture when itis no longernecessary to insistthat the differ- encewomenmaketomoralphilosophyissomethingtobeprized. I owe a debt of gratitude to the moral philosophers whose work appears in thisvolume—andtomanyotherswhoseworkdoesnot.Thiscollectionislimited inmanyways—toalmostexclusivelyU.S.philosophers,manyofwhomaremem- bers of the same generation and all of whom do what might loosely be called “analytic”philosophy.Readerswillprobablynoticemanyotherlimits. I am grateful to my home institution, Colby College, which has, as always, provided generous research support and a sabbatical leave. That support enabled metoworkwithJasonBeal,astudentresearchassistant,whocuthiseditingteeth on this volume. I am deeply thankful for his persistence, collaborative spirit, and hardwork. Acknowledgments Mythankstothefollowingpublishersforgrantingpermissiontoreprintessaysfor thisvolume: Repair by Elizabeth V. Spelman. Copyright 2002 by Elizabeth V. Spelman. ReprintedbypermissionofBeaconPress,Boston. MarthaC.Nussbaum,“TheFutureofFeministLiberalism.”ProceedingsandAd- dressesoftheAmericanPhilosophicalAssociation,vol.74,no.2 (November2000). ReprintedwithpermissionoftheAmericanPhilosophicalAssociation. Barbara Herman, “The Scope of Moral Requirement.” Philosophy and Public Affairs, vol. 30, no. 3 (Summer 2001). Copyright Princeton University Press 2001. Susan Wolf, “The Moral of Moral Luck.” Philosophic Exchange, no. 31 (2000– 2001).ReprintedwithpermissionoftheCenterforPhilosophicExchange. A substantial portion of the essay “Common Decency,” by Cheshire Calhoun, originally appeared in “Expecting Common Decency,” Philosophy of Education 2002:APublicationofthePhilosophyofEducationSociety.Copyrightheldbythe PhilosophyofEducationSociety,reprintedwiththesociety’spermission. ClaudiaCard,“GenocideandSocialDeath.”Hypatia:AJournalofFeministPhi- losophy, vol. 18, no. 1 (2003). Reprinted with permission of Indiana University Press. AlisonJaggar,“GlobalizingFeministEthics.”Hypatia:AJournalofFeministPhi- losophy, vol. 13, no. 2 (1998). Reprinted with permission of Indiana University Press. viii acknowledgments Michele Moody-Adams, “The Idea of Moral Progress.” Metaphilosophy, vol. 30 (July1999).ReprintedwithpermissionofBlackwellPublishingLtd. “The Improvisatory Dramas of Deliberation,” by Amelie Oksenberg Rorty, is a revised version of “The Improvisatory Drama of Decision-Making,” which origi- nallyappearedinWell-BeingandMorality:EssaysinHonourofJamesGriffin,ed. Roger Crisp. Copyright 2000. Reprinted with permission of Oxford University Press. ChristineM. Korsgaard,“Self-Constitution inthe Ethicsof Platoand Kant.”The Journal of Ethics: An International Philosophical Review, vol. 3 (1999), pp. 1–29. Copyright 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Reprinted with kind permission ofChristineM.Korsgaard,HarvardUniversity,andKluwerAcademicPublishers. Contents Contributors xi Introduction 3 I An Ethics for Ordinary Life and Vulnerable Persons 1 Virtue and the Skills of Ordinary Life 23 Marcia Homiak 2 The Household as Repair Shop 43 Elizabeth V. Spelman 3 Taking Care: Care as Practice and Value 59 Virginia Held 4 The Future of Feminist Liberalism 72 Martha C. Nussbaum II What We Ought to Do for Each Other 5 The Scope of Moral Requirement 91 Barbara Herman 6 The Moral of Moral Luck 113 Susan Wolf 7 Common Decency 128 Cheshire Calhoun III The Normative Importance of a Shared Social World 8 Resentment and Assurance 145 Margaret Urban Walker
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