Feminist Ethics and Social and Political Philosophy: Theorizing the Non-Ideal

This diverse collection of feminist essays self-consciously develops non-idealizing approaches to either ethics or social and political philosophy (or both), and is a cross-section of current work in both feminist ethics and social and political philosophy.

Feminist Ethics and Social and Political Philosophy: Theorizing the Non-Ideal is a collection of feminist essays that self-consciously develop non-idealizing approaches to either ethics or social and political philosophy (or both). Characterizing feminist ethics and social and political philosophy as marked by a tendency to be non-idealizing serves to thematize the volume, while still allowing the essays to be diverse enough to constitute a representation of current work in the fields of feminist ethics and social and political philosophy.

Each of the essays either serves as an instance of work that is rooted in actual, non-ideal conditions, and that, as such, is able to consider any of the many questions relevant to subordinated people; or reflects theoretically on the significance of non-idealizing as an approach to feminist ethics or social and political philosophy.

The volume will be of interest to feminist scholars from all disciplines, to academics who are ethicists and political philosophers as well as to graduate students.

Provides an up-to-date account of current work in the fields of feminist ethics and social and political philosophy Reflects on the significance of the non-idealizing approach, inviting the reader to reconsider traditional idealizing approaches Challenges traditional moral and political frameworks by positing a moral/political subject who is affected by systems of oppression Addresses issues of gender, race, class, sexuality, nation, and ability as they intersect and in global contexts

Auteur

Lisa Tessman is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Women's Studies at Binghamton University, where she directs the graduate program in Social, Political, Ethical and Legal Philosophy (SPEL). Her research, which takes a feminist approach, focuses on ethics with special attention to virtue ethics and eudiamonism, the ethics of liberatory political struggles, the place for normative ideals in non-ideal theorizing, and the concept of a moral dilemma. She has published a collection that she co-edited with Bat-Ami Bar On called Jewish Locations: Traversing Racialized Landscapes (Rowman and Littlefield, 2001), a monograph called Burdened Virtues: Virtue Ethics for Liberatory Struggles (Oxford University Press, 2005), and various articles and book chapters. She is currently working on a monograph that focuses on the dilemmatic character of moral life, particularly under conditions of oppression.

Contenu
Feminist Theorizations of Ethics and Politics, and of the Ideal and Non-ideal.- Normativity, Feminism, and Politics.- Ethical Reasons and Political Commitments.- Feminist Eudaimonism: Eudaimonism as Non-Ideal Theory.- L'Imagination au Pouvoir: Comparing John Rawls's Method of Ideal Theory with Iris Marion Young's Method of Critical Theory.- Critiquing Idealized Characterizations of Personhood.- Conjoined Twins, Embodied Personhood, and Surgical Separation.- The Ideology of the Normal: Desire, Ethics, and Kierkegaardian Critique.- The Challenge of Care to Idealizing Theories of Distributive Justice.- The Ethics of Philosophizing: Ideal Theory and the Exclusion of People with Severe Cognitive Disabilities.- Remaking the Moral and Political Subject.- The Vulnerable Self: Enabling the Recognition of Racial Inequality.- Anger, Virtue, and Oppression.- Practicing Imperfect Forgiveness.- Feminist Political Solidarity.- Contextualizing in Actualities.- Resisting Organizational Power.- Women and Violence: A Theory of Judgment.- Narrative Structures, Narratives of Abuse, and Human Rights.- Women, Corporate Globalization, and Global Justice.