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Feminist Philosophy (Feminist Theory and Politics) PDF

280 Pages·2004·64.639 MB·English
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HERTA NAGL-DOCEKAL KATHARINA VESTER TRANSLATED BY FEMINIST PHILOSOPHY F E M I N I S T PHILOSOPHY HERTA NAGL-DOCEKAL Translated by !Catharina Vester J Foreword by Alison M. aggar A Member of the Perseus Books Group All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of An1erica. No part of this publica tion may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and re trieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. English Translation © 2004 by Westview Press German Edition© 1999 Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH, Frankturt am Main Published in the United States of America by Westview Press, A Member of the Perseus Books Group, 5500 Central Avenue, Boulder, Colorado 80301-2877, and in the United Kingdom by Westview Press, 12 Hid's Copse Road, Cumnor Hill, Oxford OX2 9J]. Find us on the world wide web at www.westviewpress.com Westview Press books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the United States by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more infor mation, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142, or call ( 617) 252-5298, (800) 255- 1514 or emaiJ [email protected]. A Cataloging-in-Publication data record tor this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 0-8133-4189-2 (he.); 0-8133-6571-6 (pbk.) The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper tor Printed Library MateriaJs Z39.48-1984. Typeface used in this text: 11-point GaJliard 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 CONTENTS Foreword by Alison M. ]aggar VII Acknowledgments XI Introduction: Feminist Philosophy Under Post-feminist Conditions XIII l On the Anthropology of the Sexes 1 Why there is no natural order of the sexes, l Corporality as an issue off reedom, 9 Are binary oppositions discriminating speech acts, 15 Cartesianis1n: A reproach that needs further precision, 18 Sex/Gender: How a long-running debate could come to a conclusion, 22 2 Art and Femininity 41 Art isgendered, 41 Sigtnt,nd Freud and the woman artist, 45 Writing with white ink, 5 8 Feminist aesthetics, 73 3 Reason: A Concept \.Vith Connotations of Masculinity 87 One problem, many questions, 87 Rationality and gender blindness in the sciences, 88 V VI CONTENTS ls science founded on aggressi-ve masculinity? 110 The criticism of Western Logos, 116 Ir the subject shaped by instrumental reason? 122 Detached emotions, 127 4 For a NonessentiaJist Politics 133 Moral foundations, 13 3 The feminist we, 141 Women as citizens; or, Why the social contract theory should be reformulated, 152 171 Notes Bibliography 213 237 Index FOREWORD PROFESSOR DOCTOR H ERTA NAGL-DOCEKAL is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Vienna. She is a pioneer in the philosophy of the German language, both as a \VOn1an and as a femi nist. It is a philosophical honor and a personal privilege to present Nag]-Docekal's groundbreaking book to the Anglophone philosoph ical world. Nagl-Docekal's professional career was influenced at an early stage by feminism in the United States. In 1970/71, when she spent a sabbatical year at Millersville State University, Lancaster, PA, Nagl-Docekal encountered the then-new aspiration among women philosophers to become full n1embers of the academic philosophical con1munity. At this time, no \vomen philosophy professors in Aus tria existed. Nagl-Docekal decided to write her habilitation thesis in philosophy. She accomplished this in 1981 and soon becan1e a phi losophy professor at the University of Vienna. Since that ti1ne, she has been very supportive of younger Austrian women philosophers. In 2001, she was elected a member of the Austrian Academy of the Sciences. Fen1inist philosophy has long been a central-though far fron1 the only-focus of Nagl-Docekal's \vork. In addition to making her o,vn intellectual contribution to this emerging field, Nagl-Docekal has encouraged the work of other feminist scholars. She \Vas a founding member of an interdisciplinary group on feminist studies VII FOREWORD V 111 at the University of Vienna and helped to establish the first lecture series on feminist topics. In 1989, she co-organized a landmark con ference on feminist philosophy at the University of Vienna, which brought together pron1inent English- and German-speaking femi nist philosophers. Fluent in English, she has presented feminist de bates occurring in English to German-speaking philosophers at many occasions. She has co-edited several volumes of feminist phi losophy, translated from English to German. Nagl-Docekal's study, Feminist Philosophy, is one of a very few book-length philosophical treatments of feminist topics in German. However, it is unique in Anglophone as well as German philosophy because it is deeply informed by the author's extensive knowledge of feminist philosophical work not only in German but also in English and French. The book thus brings together and analyzes critically contributions from several philosophical literatures. This rich synthe sis offers a fresh and important perspective on the central issues of feminist philosophy, including topics in philosophical anthropology, aesthetics, theory of science and the critique of reason, and philoso phy of law. Nagl-Docekal's distinctive point of view developed through her attempts to discuss feminist philosophical issues in the Continental European perspective, an approach that is of significant influence in German philosophy. She contends that, against this background, the issues of feminist philosophy cannot be avoided. Her \vork draws es pecially heavily on Kant, despite his nlixed reputation an,ong fenlinist philosophers. Nag!-Docekal shows that Kant's n1oral philosophy and philosophy of law can-and must- be turned to feminist purposes, arguing that those who read Kant properly have to becon1e feminists. For Nagl-Docekal, feminist philosophy is not simply an academic enterprise. In her view, the ultin1ate aim of this field of research whose point of departure is the fact of n1anifold discrimination against \vomen-is to provide theoretical foundations for feminist politics. Nagl-Docekal believes that philosophy is able to make a con tribution to practical politics but that this can occur only if philoso-

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