Feminist Philosophy of Mind

407 Pages·2022·4.391 MB·English

by  Keya Maitra (editor), Jennifer McWeeny (editor)

Feminist Philosophy of Mind
PHILOSOPHY OF MIND SERIES
Series Editor: David J. Chalmers, New York University
The Conscious Brain Consciousness and Fundamental
Jesse Prinz Reality
Philip Goff
Simulating Minds
The Philosophy, Psychology, and The Phenomenal Basis of
Neuroscience of Mindreading Intentionality
Alvin I. Goldman Angela Mendelovici
Supersizing The Mind Seeing and Saying
Embodiment, Action, and Cognitive The Language of Perception and the
Extension Representational View of Experience
Andy Clark Berit Brogaard
Perception, Hallucination, and Illusion Perceptual Learning
William Fish The Flexibility of the Senses
Kevin Connolly
Phenomenal Concepts and
Phenomenal Knowledge Combining Minds
New Essays on Consciousness and How to Think About Composite
Physicalism Subjectivity
Torin Alter and Sven Walter Luke Roelofs
Phenomenal Intentionality The Epistemic Role of
George Graham, John Tienson, and Consciousness
Terry Horgan Declan Smithies
The Character of Consciousness The Epistemology of
David J. Chalmers Non- Visual Perception
Berit Brogaard and
The Senses
Dimitria Electra Gatzia
Classic and Contemporary Philosophical
Perspectives What are Mental Representations?
Fiona Macpherson Edited by Joulia Smortchkova,
Krzysztof Dołęga, and Tobias Schlicht
Attention is Cognitive Unison
An Essay in Philosophical Psychology Consciousness and Quantum
Christopher Mole Mechanics
Edited by Shan Gao
The Contents of Visual Experience
Susanna Siegel Feminist Philosophy of Mind
Edited by Keya Maitra and
Consciousness and the Prospects
Jennifer McWeeny
of Physicalism
Derk Pereboom
Feminist Philosophy
of Mind
Edited by
KEYA MAITRA AND JENNIFER MCWEENY
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Maitra, Keya, editor. | McWeeny, Jennifer, editor.
Title: Feminist philosophy of mind / edited by Keya Maitra and Jennifer McWeeny.
Description: New York, NY, United States of America :
Oxford University Press, [2022] | Series: Philosophy of mind series |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022000767 (print) | LCCN 2022000768 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780190867621 (pb) | ISBN 9780190867614 (hardback) |
ISBN 9780190867645 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Philosophy of mind. | Feminist theory.
Classification: LCC BD418.3 .F46 2022 (print) | LCC BD418.3 (ebook) |
DDC 128/.2—dc23/eng/20220203
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022000767
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022000768
DOI: 10.1093/o so/ 9780190867614.001.0001
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Paperback printed by Marquis, Canada
Hardback printed by Bridgeport National Bindery, Inc., United States of America
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: What Is Feminist Philosophy of Mind? 1
Jennifer McWeeny and Keya Maitra
PART I. MIND AND GENDER&RACE&
1. Is the First-P erson Perspective Gendered? 41
Lynne Rudder Baker
2. Computing Machinery and Sexual Difference: The Sexed
Presuppositions Underlying the Turing Test 54
Amy Kind
3. Toward a Feminist Theory of Mental Content 70
Keya Maitra
4. Disappearing Black People through Failures of White Empathy 86
Janine Jones
PART II. SELF AND SELVES
5. Playfulness, “World”-T raveling, and Loving Perception 105
María Lugones
6. Symptoms in Particular: Feminism and the Disordered Mind 123
Jennifer Radden
7. Passivity in Theories of the Agentic Self: Reflections
on the Views of Soran Reader and Sarah Buss 139
Diana Tietjens Meyers
8. The Question of Personal Identity 156
Susan James
PART III. NATURALISM AND NORMATIVITY
9. S exual Ideology and Phenomenological Description: A Feminist
Critique of Merleau-P onty’s Phenomenology of Perception 175
Judith Butler
vi Contents
10. Enactivism and Gender Performativity 190
Ashby Butnor and Matthew MacKenzie
11. Norms and Neuroscience: The Case of Borderline Personality
Disorder 207
Anne J. Jacobson
12. Embodiments of Sex and Gender: The Metaphors of Speaking
Surfaces 221
Gabrielle Benette Jackson
PART IV. BODY AND MIND
13. Against Physicalism 239
Naomi Scheman
14. Why Feminists Should Be Materialists and Vice Versa 255
Paula Droege
15. Which Bodies Have Minds? Feminism, Panpsychism, and the
Attribution Question 272
Jennifer McWeeny
16. Sexual Orientations: The Desire View 294
E. Díaz- León
PART V. MEMORY AND EMOTION
17. Outliving Oneself: Trauma, Memory, and Personal Identity 313
Susan J. Brison
18. Does Neutral Monism Provide the Best Framework for
Relational Memory? 330
Iva Apostolova
19. The Odd Case of a Bird-M other: Relational Selfhood and a
“Method of Grief” 346
Vrinda Dalmiya
20. Equanimity and the Loving Eye: A Buddhist-F eminist
Account of Loving Attention 362
Emily McRae
Contributors 379
Index 383
Acknowledgments
A collection of essays on feminist philosophy of mind is long overdue in the
discipline. We would not have been able to realize this vision without the col-
laboration, encouragement, and enthusiasm of so many who welcomed the
inauguration of this subfield and the expansion of philosophy by centering con-
siderations of gender, race, class, sexuality, age, ability, and other social and ex-
periential categories. Completing this manuscript during a global pandemic at
a time when diverse social movements are gaining ground, changing the world,
and raising consciousness— waking people up to our widespread participation
in systemic injustices and the social structures on which they depend— makes
this project even more meaningful. The consideration and discussion of the
ways that theories about the nature of mind may support or undermine social
movements and the voices and experiences of groups of people at the center of
these movements are part and parcel of the sea change that is upon us. Such a
project is necessarily a collective one, and we wish to recognize those whose par-
ticipation was crucial along the way.
We would first like to thank our respective institutions for supporting our
research on this project: University of North Carolina Asheville (UNCA) and
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). The University Research Council and
Thomas Howerton Distinguished Professorship for the Humanities at UNCA
and the Dean of Arts and Sciences and Department of Humanities and Arts at
WPI provided financial support. We are especially appreciative of colleagues
Melissa Burchard, Ameena Batada, Tracey Rizzo, Wiebke Strehl, and Kate Zubko
at UNCA and Jean King, Kate Moncrief, Kris Boudreau, Michelle Ephraim,
Roger Gottlieb, Peter Hansen, John Sanbonmatsu, and Ruth Smith at WPI. In
addition, many colleagues and friends from the profession have been generous
and consistent with their willingness to engage our ideas in conversations over
the years. Thank you to Iva Apostolova, Donald Baxter, Nancy Bauer, Asha
Bhandary, Ashby Butnor, Arindam Chakrabarti, Vrinda Dalmiya, PJ DiPietro,
Paula Droege, Michael Eng, Jay Garfield, Nicole Garner, Mark Johnson, Janine
Jones, Noreen Khawaja, Amy Kind, Matt MacKenzie, Emily McRae, Diana
Meyers, Dermot Moran, James Morley, Ruth Millikan, Shelley Park, Shireen
Roshanravan, Brook Sadler, Naomi Scheman, Susanna Siegel, Margaret A. “Peg”
Simons, Elisa Springer, Evan Thompson, Gail Weiss, Naomi Zack, and Kelli
Zaytoun.
viii Acknowledgments
We developed the idea for this project while attending the 2012 National
Endowment for Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute “Investigating
Consciousness: Buddhist and Contemporary Philosophical Perspectives.”
Christian Coseru, Jay Garfield, and Evan Thompson were the directors of the in-
stitute, where we benefited from many stimulating conversations with faculty
and the other participants across multiple philosophical traditions. When this
book was in its early stages, the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical
Association invited us to participate in a symposium, “Feminism and Philosophy,”
on the theme of feminist philosophy of mind, which took place on April 13, 2017,
in Seattle, Washington. We are grateful for exchanges with the other panelists in
that session, Janine Jones and Amy Kind, and moderator Helen Daly, and for the
questions we received from members of the audience, whose enthusiasm for and
careful consideration of the subject inspired directions that we pursue in the book.
We presented versions of our own chapters in this book at a number of
venues, including the Florida Philosophical Association Annual conference in
2016, where Keya gave a keynote address; the Center for Subjectivity Research
in Copenhagen; WoGAP (Workshop on Gender and Philosophy) at MIT; and
the Colorado College Philosophy Department Colloquium Series, where Jen
delivered lectures. We thank these programs for their hospitality and interest
in the subject and the audience members for their insightful comments.
The task of writing the introduction to this book, which defines the scope,
content, and history of this new subfield in philosophy, was challenging and re-
quired many conversations and revisions. We are lucky to have colleagues who
were giving with their time and provided comments on various drafts of the
introduction and our individual chapters. Their incisive readings helped us to
develop and refine our vision for the book. We are especially grateful to Ashby
Butnor, Arindam Chakrabarti, David Chalmers, Vrinda Dalmiya, Paula Droege,
Jay Garfield, Janine Jones, Amy Kind, Matt MacKenzie, Naomi Scheman, and
Anand Vaidya.
Our editors at Oxford University Press believed in the project from the start
and ushered us through each stage of the process with care and sage advice.
David Chalmers, editor of the Philosophy of Mind series, could always be leaned
upon for guidance and inspiration. Executive Editor Peter Ohlin, Assistant
Editors Abigail Johnson and Brent Matheny, and Senior Production Editor Leslie
Johnson were a pleasure to work with and provided counsel throughout devel-
opment and production. We are grateful to the Artists Rights Society (ARS),
New York / VEGAP, Madrid for granting us permission to feature Remedios
Varo’s painting Alegoría del inverno (Allegory of Winter) on the book’s cover, and
to Rachel Perkins for her stunning cover design. We would also like to thank
our production managers, Nandhini Thanga Alagu and Kavitha Yuvaraj, our
Acknowledgments ix
copyeditors, Richard Isomaki and Janani Vadivelou, and David Martinez, who
meticulously prepared the book’s index.
This book is a manifestation of the collective efforts of each of its twenty- one
contributors, who brought their unique perspectives and careful thinking to this
project. We thank them for their hard work, expertise, and patience throughout
the long editing process, and we are honored to be in their company, sharing
the pages of this inaugural collection. Susan J. Brison, Judith Butler, Susan
James, María Lugones, and Naomi Scheman kindly agreed to our requests to re-
print previously published articles. We are appreciative of Princeton University
Press, Jeffner Allen, Cambridge University Press, and Rowman & Littlefield for
granting the permission rights to reprint their chapters here.
While preparing this manuscript we have experienced invaluable philosoph-
ical, professional, and personal growth. We thank our families for their unwa-
vering support in getting us to this point. Keya thanks Mohsin, Abir, baba, bordi,
chhordi, Dipakda, Tukun, and Rupun, and members of her Asheville family,
Julia Noe, Amy Monroe, Peggy Brooks, Norma Jean Snyder, and Jennifer Fulford
for always being there for her. Jen is grateful for her parents, family, and friends,
including Emily Stowe, Ashby Butnor, Matt MacKenzie, Quinn MacKenzie, Reid
MacKenzie, Sally Wurtzler, Maura McGee, Claudia Tomsa, Matt Allen, and Ture
Turnbull.
Finally, and sadly, two of the book’s contributing authors passed away be-
fore this book appeared in print. Lynne Rudder Baker and María Lugones have
each made unparalleled contributions to the discipline of philosophy and will
be deeply missed by so many of us. Baker is known for her work in philosophy
of mind, metaphysics, and philosophy of religion, where her emphases on per-
sonhood and the first- person perspective show philosophy’s relevance to the
world we live in. To our knowledge, c hapter 1 of this book, “Is the First-P erson
Perspective Gendered?,” is the last article that Baker published, and it is one that
promises to open a lasting debate on the subject. Lugones is a renowned theo-
rist of coalition, feminism, Women of Color politics, the oppressing ↔ resisting
relation, and friendship. Her writings have played a crucial role within the dis-
cipline of philosophy and beyond in antiracist, decolonial, and feminist social
movements. Her most famous article, “Playfulness, ‘World’- Traveling, and
Loving Perception,” reprinted here as c hapter 5, is exemplary both for its theoret-
ical innovation and for its autobiographical honesty. We are extremely grateful
to be able to feature the work of these two special and irreplaceable thinkers in
Feminist Philosophy of Mind and extend their legacies in new directions.