Feminist Philosophies A-Z

185 Pages·2007·0.85 MB·English

by  Nancy Arden McHugh

Feminist Philosophies A–Z
Nancy Arden McHugh N
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PHILOSOPHY A–Z SERIES y
GENERAL EDITOR: OLIVER LEAMAN A
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These thorough,authoritative yet concise alphabetical guides introduce the
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central concepts of the various branches of philosophy. Written by established n
philosophers,they cover both traditional and contemporary terminology. M
Feminist Philosophies A–Z
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Features H
•Dedicated coverage of particular topics within philosophy u
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•Coverage of key terms and major figures
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•Cross-references to related terms. Nancy Arden McHugh
Aconcise alphabetical guide to the key terms,issues,theoretical approaches, F
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projects and thinkers in feminist philosophy.
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Feminist Philosophies A-Zcovers contemporary material in a number of feminist i
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approaches.It illustrates the complexity,range and interconnectedness of issues in
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feminist philosophy while making clear the relationship of feminist philosophy to the s
rest of philosophyas a discipline (epistemology,metaphysics,ethics,social philosophy t
and metaphysics).Entries are pithy,detailed,informative and are cross-referenced to P
guide the reader through the livelydebates in feminism. h
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This volume is an indispensable resource for philosophers,students,and Women’s o
Studies faculties as well as anyone with an interest in feminist philosophy. s
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Nancy Arden McHughis Associate Professor of Philosophy at Wittenberg p
University,Ohio.She is the author of published articles on epistemology and on h
feminist theory in various philosophy journals. i
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Cover design:River Design,Edinburgh
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Edinburgh University Press barcode d
22 George Square,Edinburgh EH8 9LF in
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FEMINIST PHILOSOPHIES A–Z
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Volumes available in the Philosophy A–Z Series
Christian Philosophy A–Z, Daniel J. Hill and Randal D.
Rauser
EpistemologyA–Z,MartijnBlaauwandDuncanPritchard
EthicsA–Z,JonathanA.Jacobs
IndianPhilosophyA–Z,ChristopherBartley
JewishPhilosophyA–Z,AaronW.Hughes
PhilosophyofLanguageA–Z,AlessandraTanesini
PhilosophyofMindA–Z,MarinaRakova
PhilosophyofReligionA–Z,PatrickQuinn
PhilosophyofScienceA–Z,StathisPsillos
Forthcoming volumes
AestheticsA–Z,FranGuter
ChinesePhilosophyA–Z,BoMou
IslamicPhilosophyA–Z,PeterGroff
PoliticalPhilosophyA–Z,JonPike
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Feminist Philosophies A–Z
Nancy Arden McHugh
Edinburgh University Press
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(cid:2)C NancyArdenMcHugh,2007
EdinburghUniversityPressLtd
22GeorgeSquare,Edinburgh
Typesetin10.5/13Sabon
byTechBooksIndia,andprintedand
boundinGreatBritainby
AntonyRoweLtd,Chippenham,Wilts
ACIPrecordforthisbookis
availablefromtheBritishLibrary
ISBN9780748622177(hardback)
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Contents
SeriesEditor’sPreface vi
Introduction viii
Acknowledgements xii
FeministPhilosophiesA–Z 1
Bibliography 158
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Series Editor’s Preface
Philosophyhastraditionallybeenaverymaleformofactivity,
surprising perhaps given its place as a humanities discipline.
Most professional philosophers today are men, and while it
is not difficult to produce a list of important thinkers from
the history of philosophy, it is difficult for many philosophy
studentstothinkofanywomentoincludeinsuchalist.There
were in the past many female philosophers, but they have on
thewholenotbeentreatedasofequalvalueastheirmalepeers.
Thisvolumedoesnotlookatthesefemalethinkers,however,
since feminist philosophy is not the activity of philosophy as
carried out by women. It is rather philosophy developed in a
waythatmakestheissueofgenderandeverythingthatstems
from it an important and even crucial theoretical concept.
For example, philosophy has traditionally set out to ignore
the gender and race context within which thought was pro-
duced, working with a notion of objectivity and validity that
transcends,orseekstotranscend,personalissues.Thewhole
point of philosophy is to consider the arguments themselves
andonlyperipherallythenatureofthearguers,theircultural
and social backgrounds, or so it was often argued. Feminist
philosophy sets out to study philosophy within a particular
context, the context in which it was produced and who pro-
ducedit,andconsiderstheseissuesofcontextassignificantin
assessingthenatureoftheactivityitself.Manywomeninphi-
losophyhavecontributedtothisactivity,andNancyMcHugh
provides here an introduction to some of the basic language
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SERIESEDITOR’SPREFACE vii
andpersonalitiesinthearea.Someofthislanguagehasbecome
technicalandrequiresexplication,sinceitisusedtobringout
aspects of argument and theory that traditional philosophy
has for a long time ignored. Much of this language involves
a new way of looking at philosophy and it is the intention of
thisguidetomakethiseasiertograspandoperate.
OliverLeaman
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Introduction
Feminist Philosophies A–Z is a reference covering contem-
porary feminist philosophy. It is oriented toward students in
feminist philosophy and women’s studies classes as well as a
generalaudienceinterestedinfeministtheory.Thegoalofthe
A–Z Series is to provide pithy coverage of important termi-
nologyandfiguresinphilosophy.Becauseofthisthereisafair
amountofbreadthinthevolumes,withdepthinsomeareas,
butnotall.
InFeministPhilosophiesA–Zmygoalistohavearepresen-
tative coverage of the field as well as to focus on some areas
of feminist philosophy. In this volume I have tried to be par-
ticularly conscious of areas of feminist philosophy that may
have received less coverage in other references or are newer
to feminist philosophy and are receiving increased coverage
infeministphilosophycourses.Forexample,thereareseveral
entries devoted to debates in transnational feminism, Third
World feminism and antiglobalisation. Furthermore, I have
tried to show how debates in areas such as Chicana/Latina
feminism, Black feminist thought and Third World feminism
haveinformedotherareasoffeministphilosophy.Thusmany
generalentriesmakereferencetotheseareastoshowthecross-
fertilisation of ideas and make clear that feminist philosophy
is an ongoing, critical practice that seeks growth and revi-
sion. The volume is also attentive to many of the ongoing
debates and ideas in feminist philosophy. For example, there
are entries on reproductive rights, reproductive technologies,
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INTRODUCTION ix
postmodern feminism, radical feminism, Marxist feminism,
thepublic/privatedistinction,feministepistemologyandfem-
inistethics.
For the most part, I cover figures that consider themselves
self-consciously feminist. So all the entries reflect twentieth-
and twenty-first-century feminism, even though there may
be figures in the history of philosophy, such as Mary Woll-
stonecraft,thatwenowtendtotalkaboutasfeministorhav-
ingfeministideals.Ialsoincludeonlywomeninthisvolume.
Though there may be feminist men, for a variety of reasons
I thought it was important to devote my limited space to the
coverage of important women in feminist philosophy. I am
sure that there are important female figures that I have left
out.ForthisIapologise.Therearesomanywomenwhohave
madesignificantanduniquecontributionstofeministphilos-
ophy, it is hard to give all of these figures the attention they
are due. Because feminist philosophy still holds a marginal
position in philosophy, all feminist work is noteworthy, is a
challengetothedisciplineanddeservesrecognition.
Inregardstotheentries,foreachentryonafeministphiloso-
pherorfeministthinkerIincludecountryoforiginandraceor
ethnicity. I realise that this might make some readers uncom-
fortable,butIdoitforavarietyofinterrelatedreasons.Most
feministsofcolouridentifytheirraceorethnicitybecausethey
view it as important to their theorising. Because their race or
ethnicity is so central to their view of their work, I certainly
wanted to include it in the description of their work. In do-
ing so, it seems wrong not to include whiteness as a racial
category for white feminist thinkers. Whiteness is a location
from which white feminists theorise whether or not they are
self-conscious of it. I didn’t want to further other women of
colourbyidentifyingtheirraceaspartoftheirepistemological
locationandnotrecognisethatwhitenessisaprivilege,aplace
from which white women theorise from and a place to criti-
callyinterrogate.Quitefrankly,itwasnotalwaysaneasytask