Feminist Ethics

About this book

What is "feminist" about feminist ethics? Do womens voices yield a distinct approach to the study of ethics? Although theyre far from uniform womens voices shaped by legacies of sexual politics differ enough from mens to warrant a separate hearing. In Feminist Ethics feminist philosopher Claudia Card provides the forum. She brings together fifteen new essays on the nature current state and implications of feminist ethics including many by some of the best and best known feminist philosophers in the U.S. The connecting threads? "Feminist ethics is born of womens refusals to endure with grace the arrogance indifference hostility and damage of oppressively sexist environments " Card writes. Thus woven throughout feminist writings on ethics run experiences of oppression. From a variety of perspectives the writers of these essays address a fundamental question: If oppressive contexts shape the moral development of the oppressed what does it mean for the oppressed to resist to make morally responsible choices to become moral agents to develop character? This volume presents no single answer. Instead the essays collected here reflect the pluralism and "feistiness" of modern feminism. Subjects range from the history of feminist ethics to the logic of pluralist feminism presenting feminist perspectives on such unexpected topics as terrorism bitterness women trusting other women and survival and ethics.