Burdened Virtues: Virtue Ethics for Liberatory Struggles

199 Pages·2005·0.81 MB·English

by  Lisa Tessman

Burdened Virtues:
Virtue Ethics for
Liberatory Struggles
LISA TESSMAN
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
BURDENED VIRTUES
STUDIES IN FEMINIST PHILOSOPHY
Cheshire Calhoun, Series Editor
Advisory Board
Susan Bordo, University of Kentucky
Harry Brod, Temple University
Claudia Card, University of Wisconsin
Lorraine Code, York University, Toronto
Kimberle Crenshaw, Columbia Law School/UCLA School of Law
Jane Flax, Howard University
Ann Garry, California State University, Los Angeles
Sally Haslanger, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Hilde Hein, College of the Holy Cross
Alison Jaggar, University of Colorado, Boulder
Helen Longino, University of Minnesota
Maria Lugones, State University of New York–Binghamton
Uma Narayan, Vassar College
James Sterba, University of Notre Dame
Rosemarie Tong, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
Nancy Tuana, Pennsylvania State University
Karen Warren, Macalester College
Iris Marion Young, University of Chicago
Published in the Series
Gender in the Mirror: Confounding Imagery
Diana Tietjens Meyers
Autonomy, Gender, Politics
Marilyn Friedman
Setting the Moral Compass: Essays by Women Philosophers
Edited by Cheshire Calhoun
Woman and Citizenship
Edited by Marilyn Friedman
Burdened Virtues: Virtue Ethics for Liberatory Struggles
Lisa Tessman
Burdened Virtues
Virtue Ethics for Liberatory Struggles
LISA TESSMAN
1
2005
1
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Tessman,Lisa,1966–
Burdenedvirtues:virtueethicsforliberatorystruggles/LisaTessman
p.cm.—(Studiesinfeministphilosophy)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN-13978-0-19-517914-9;978-0-19-517915-6(pbk.)
ISBN0-19-517914-5;0-19-517915-3(pbk.)
1. Virtues. 2. Ethics. 3. Women—Conductoflife. 4. Feministethics.
5. Oppression(Psychology) I. Title. II. Series.
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Acknowledgments
Research that I did for several chapters of this book was made possible by a
Dean’s Research Semester Award that I received in the fall of 2002 from Bin-
ghamton University.
Most parts of the book have been presented in draft form and have been
shaped by the responses I received to these presentations. An early version of
chapter 1 was presented in 1998 at the University of Go¨teborg, Sweden, by in-
vitation from the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Feminist
Studies, and at the spring 1998 meeting of the Eastern Division of the Society
for Women in Philosophy. Portions of chapter 2 were presented at the 1998
Radical Philosophy Association conference and at the 1999 Feminist Ethics
Revisited conference. The beginning of chapter 3 was presented at the 2001
meeting of the Association for Feminist Ethics and Social Theory and at the
2001 National Women’s Studies Association conference; later pieces of this
chapter were presented by invitation at the Feminist Moral Philosophy con-
ference at the University of Western Ontario in 2002. Chapter 4 began as a
paper for the International Association of Women Philosophers conference in
2002inBarcelona,Spain,andwasalsopresentedattheColloquiumonEthics
in the History of Philosophy, sponsored by the Program in Social, Political,
Ethical and Legal Philosophy at Binghamton University in 2003. Parts of
chapter 5 were presented at the 2002 conference of the Radical Philosophy
Association and other parts at the 2003 Feminist Ethics and Social Theory
conference.Chapter6emergedfromapaperthatIwrotein1997andpresented
at that time to the Philosophy Departments at Temple University, Michigan
State University, and DePaul University. The conclusion grew from a presen-
tation at the 2004 meeting of the International Association of Women Philos-
ophers in Go¨teborg, Sweden. I wish to thank the audiences at all of these
presentations for their comments and questions, which spurred my revisions.
Members of the Binghamton University Philosophy Department’s junior
facultydiscussiongroup—CharlesGoodman,ChristopherKnapp,SteveScalet,
and Melissa Zinkin—closely read, commented on, and discussed most of the
viii Acknowledgments
manuscript while it was in progress. I have benefited enormously from their
work, especially because the insights they offered came out of such widely di-
verging sorts of philosophical training, areas, and moral commitments. This
group of my colleagues has also supported and encouraged me at every step of
the process of completing this book. Members of the Socialist and Feminist
Philosophers’ Association (SOFPHIA) read a large portion of the penultimate
draft of the manuscript and discussed this draft in the spring of 2004. I am
grateful to all of them for undertaking this and for their thought-provoking
comments.RichardSchmitt,inparticular,readtheentirepenultimatedraftand
presenteditfordiscussionatthisSOFPHIAmeeting,inadditiontoofferingme
substantivecommentsofhisown.Ithankhimforthis.Ialsowouldliketothank
each of the students in my spring 2004 graduate seminar on virtue ethics; I
taught this course while doing the final revisions on the manuscript, and the
studentsgaveinterpretationsofthe course materialthatpushedmythinkingin
important ways. Margaret Walker, Hilde Nelson, and Sara Ruddick provided
me with extensive comments on the manuscript; I am grateful for the sugges-
tions that they made—many of which I followed—and I thank them for their
careful consideration of my work. Cheshire Calhoun, editor of the Studies in
FeministPhilosophyseries,andPeterOhlin,LaraZoble,andStaceyHamilton
atOxfordUniversityPresshavebeenwonderfultoworkwith,andthereviewers,
one of whom was Alison Jaggar and the other of whom remained anonymous,
wrote valuable and encouraging comments.
Ioweintellectualdebtstoallofmyteachers,buttherearethreewhostand
out:Marı´aLugones,wholuredmeintothefieldofphilosophy(andintroduced
me both to Aristotle and to feminist philosophy) twenty years ago when I was
her undergraduate student at Carleton College; Robert Paul Wolff, who made
mygraduateeducationdifficultbutfromwhomIlearnedagooddealabouthow
to do philosophy; and Ann Ferguson, who directed my dissertation at the Uni-
versity of Massachusetts and who has been a friend, intellectual and otherwise,
ever since.
In addition to the individuals named above, I would also like to thank
Barbara Andrew, Sandra Bartky, Samantha Brennan, John Brentlinger, Joan
Callahan, Claudia Card, Chris Cuomo, Peggy DesAutels, Chris Frakes, Bob
Gooding-Williams, Lisa Heldke, Ulla Holm, Kimberly Leighton, Amie Mac-
donald,MargaretMcLaren,Desire´eMelton,AndreaNicki,PegO’Connor,Max
Pensky,LisaSchwartzman,TomWartenberg,andJoanneWaugh.Andmypar-
ents and sister, and each of their families.
MydeepestthanksgotoBat-AmiBarOn.Asmylifepartnerandlover,she
has sustained me in every possible way throughout my work on this book. As a
philosopher, she has also been my most consistent interlocutor, and our phil-
osophical disagreements have enriched my thinking. Ami endured countless
discussionswithmeabouttheideasinthisbook;shealsoreadnumerousdrafts
of every chapter, generously offering comments on the large and small prob-
lemsthatneededworkingout.IfafractionofthedepthwithwhichAmiponders
andtheorizesispresentinthisbook,Ishallbeglad.Andtoourdaughter,Yuval,
thank you just for being.