Table Of ContentFeminist Ethics and Social and Political
Philosophy: Theorizing the Non-Ideal
Lisa Tessman
Editor
Feminist Ethics and Social
and Political Philosophy:
Theorizing the Non-Ideal
123
Editor
Prof.LisaTessman
BinghamtonUniversity
Dept.Philosophy
P.O.Box6000
BinghamtonNY13902-6000
LibraryTower
USA
[email protected]
ISBN978-1-4020-6840-9 e-ISBN978-1-4020-6841-6
DOI10.1007/978-1-4020-6841-6
SpringerDordrechtHeidelbergLondonNewYork
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2009926832
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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Bat-Ami Bar On, Randy Friedman, Anna Gotlib, Elizabeth
Potter, and Melissa Zinkin (as well as some anonymous readers) for help and
encouragement with the editing of this volume, Charles Mills for the essay that
sparkedmyideaofhowtoshapeit,andallofthecontributorsfortheirhard,origi-
nalworkandformanywonderfulconversations.
–LisaTessman
Some portions of chapter eight were published in 2008 by Eva Feder Kittay as
‘IdealTheoryBioethicsandtheExclusionofPeoplewithSevereCognitiveDisabil-
ities’ in Naturalized Bioethics: Toward Responsible Knowing and Practice edited
byHildeLindemann,MarianVerkerk,andMargaretWalker(CambridgeandNew
York:CambridgeUniversityPress),andarereprintedherewithpermission.
v
Contents
Introduction ....................................................... xiii
LisaTessman
Part I Feminist Theorizations of Ethics and Politics, and of the Ideal
andNon-ideal
1 Normativity,Feminism,andPolitics .............................. 3
Bat-AmiBarOn
2 EthicalReasonsandPoliticalCommitments....................... 25
LisaRivera
3 FeministEudaimonism:EudaimonismasNon-IdealTheory ........ 47
LisaTessman
4 L’ImaginationauPouvoir:ComparingJohnRawls’sMethodof
IdealTheorywithIrisMarionYoung’sMethodofCriticalTheory... 59
AlisonM.Jaggar
PartII CritiquingIdealizedCharacterizationsofPersonhood
5 ConjoinedTwins,EmbodiedPersonhood,andSurgicalSeparation... 69
ChristineOverall
6 TheIdeologyoftheNormal:Desire,Ethics,andKierkegaardian
Critique....................................................... 85
AdaS.Jaarsma
7 TheChallengeofCaretoIdealizingTheoriesofDistributiveJustice .105
AncaGheaus
vii
viii Contents
8 TheEthicsofPhilosophizing:IdealTheoryandtheExclusionof
PeoplewithSevereCognitiveDisabilities..........................121
EvaFederKittay
PartIII RemakingtheMoralandPoliticalSubject
9 TheVulnerableSelf:EnablingtheRecognitionofRacialInequality..149
DesiréeH.Melton
10 Anger,Virtue,andOppression...................................165
MacalesterBell
11 PracticingImperfectForgiveness ................................185
AliceMacLachlan
12 FeministPoliticalSolidarity .....................................205
SallyJ.Scholz
PartIV ContextualizinginActualities
13 ResistingOrganizationalPower..................................223
PeggyDesAutels
14 WomenandViolence:ATheoryofJudgment......................237
MaríaPíaLara
15 NarrativeStructures,NarrativesofAbuse,andHumanRights ......253
DianaTietjensMeyers
16 Women,CorporateGlobalization,andGlobalJustice ..............271
AnnFerguson
Index .............................................................287
About the Contributors
Bat-AmiBarOn isProfessorofPhilosophyandWomen’sStudiesandchairofthe
DepartmentofPhilosophyatBinghamtonUniversity(SUNY).Sheisarecipientof
the Chancellor Award for Excellence in Teaching. Her research and teaching are
focused on violence, democratic theory, and feminism. She is the author of The
SubjectofViolence:ArendteanExercisesinUnderstanding(2002)andtheeditorof
twospecialissuesofHypatia(23/2and11/4),JewishLocations:TraversingRacial-
izedLandscapes(withLisaTessman,2001),DaringtoBeGood:EssaysinFeminist
Ethico-Politics(withAnnFerguson,1998),EngenderingOrigins:CriticalFeminist
ReadingsofPlatoandAristotleandModernEngendering:CriticalFeministRead-
ingsinModernWesternPhilosophy(both1994).Sheisalsotheauthorofnumerous
anthologizedandjournalessays.
MacalesterBell is an Assistant Professor at Columbia University. Her main
researchandteachinginterestsareinethics,moralpsychology,feministphilosophy,
andaesthetics.
PeggyDesAutels isanAssociateProfessorofPhilosophyatUniversityofDayton.
Herresearchinterestsfocusonethicaltheory,feministethics,andmoralpsychology.
Her recent books include a co-edited volume with Rebecca Whisnant, Global
Feminist Ethics (Rowman & Littlefield); and a co-edited volume with Margaret
UrbanWalker,MoralPsychology:FeministEthicsandSocialTheory(Rowmanand
Littlefield).
AnnFerguson is a feminist philosopher and social justice activist who is an
emerita Professor of Women’s Studies and Philosophy at the University of Mas-
sachusettsatAmherst.Shehaswrittentwobooksandnumerousarticlesinfeminist
theory, ethics and politics. The books are: Blood at the Root: Motherhood, Sex-
uality and Male Dominance (London: Pandora\Unwin Hyman, 1989) and Sexual
Democracy: Women, Oppression and Revolution (Boulder: Westview, 1991). She
alsoco-editedabookinfeministethicswithBat-AmiBarOn,DaringtobeGood:
EssaysinFeministEthico-Politics(Routledge,1998).
AncaGheaus has earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Central European
University, in Budapest, Hungary with a thesis entitled ‘Care and Justice: Why
TheyCannotGoTogetherAlltheWay.’Shedidpost-doctoralresearchattheNew
ix
x AbouttheContributors
Europe College in Bucharest, the Chaire Hoover d’etique economique et sociale,
Université Catholique de Louvain and the Centre for the Study of Social Justice
atOxfordUniversity.Recentpublicationsinclude‘GenderJusticeandtheWelfare
State in Post-Communism,’ in Feminist Theory; ‘What Would a Basic Income Do
forGenderJustice?’inBasicIncomeStudies,and‘HowMuchofWhatMattersCan
WeRedistribute?’forthcominginHypatia.
AdaS.Jaarsma is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Sonoma State
University, where she teaches feminist philosophy and critical theory. Her
research examines the intersections of contemporary queer theory, religion, and
spirituality.
AlisonM.Jaggar isCollegeProfessorofDistinctioninPhilosophyandWomen’s
StudiesattheUniversityofColoradoatBoulder.Sheisauthorandeditorofanum-
berofbooksincludingTheBlackwellCompaniontoFeministPhilosophy,co-edited
with Iris M. Young (Blackwell, 1998); Just Methods (Paradigm, 2007); and Abor-
tion:ThreePerspectives,co-authoredwithMichaelTooley,PhilipDevineandCelia
Wolf-Devine(Oxford2008).Jaggarisinterestedintransnationalgenderjusticeand
inmoralreasoning,especiallyincontextsofinequalityandculturaldifference.She
wasafoundingmemberoftheSocietyforWomeninPhilosophyandispastchair
oftheAmericanPhilosophicalAssociationCommitteeontheStatusofWomen.
EvaFederKittay is Professor of Philosophy at State University of New York,
Stony Brook. Major publications include “On the Margins of Moral Personhood”
(inEthics);Love’sLabor:EssaysonWomen,Equality,andDependency;Blackwell
StudiesinFeministPhilosophy(withL.Alcoff);TheoreticalPerspectivesonDepen-
dencyandWomen(withE.Feder);WomenandMoralTheory(withD.T.Meyers),
Metaphor: Its Cognitive Force and Linguistic Structure; and Frames, Fields and
Contrasts (edited with A. Lehrer). She is working on three books, one tentatively
entitled, A Quest for A Humbler Philosophy: Thinking about Disabled Minds and
Things that Matter; another, a collection of her essays on ethics of care; and the
third, a collection of essays entitled Cognitive Disability: A Challenge to Moral
Philosophy (with Licia Carlson). She is the mother of two adult children, one of
whomhassignificantcognitiveimpairments.
MaríaPíaLara isa Professor of Political Philosophy and Ethics at the Univer-
sidad Autonoma Metropolitana (Mexico City). She is the author of Moral Tex-
tures(1997)andNarratingEvil(2007)andtheeditorofRethinkingEvil(2001).She
haspublishedinmanyinternationaljournalsandiscurrentlyworkingonabookten-
tativelycalledAuthorityandLegitimacy:ReligionandPoliticsinthePublicSphere.
AliceMacLachlan isanAssistantProfessorofPhilosophyatYorkUniversity. She
completedherPh.D.atBostonUniversityin2007.Hermainareasofteachingand
research are theoretical ethics (especially feminist ethics, virtue ethics and moral
psychology),socialandpoliticalphilosophy,andtheworkofHannahArendt.Her
currentresearchtopicsincludeforgiveness,resentmentandtheroleofmoralemo-
tionsinreconciliation.
AbouttheContributors xi
DesiréeH.Melton receivedherPh.D.inPhilosophyfromBinghamtonUniversity.
She is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the College of Notre Dame of
Maryland, where she teaches critical theories of race and social and political
philosophy. She has an article forthcoming on Iris Marion Young’s deliberative
democracy.
DianaTietjensMeyers is Ellacuría Chair and Professor of Philosophy at Loyola
University,Chicago. InSpring2003,shewastheLaurieChairinWomen’sandGen-
der Studies at Rutgers University. She works in three main areas of philosophy –
philosophyofaction,feministethics,andhumanrightstheory. Hermonographsare
InalienableRights:ADefense(1985,ColumbiaUniversityPress),Self,Society,and
Personal Choice (1989, Columbia University Press), Subjection and Subjectivity:
Psychoanalytic Feminism and Moral Philosophy (1994, Routledge), and Gender
in the Mirror: Cultural Imagery and Women’s Agency (2002, Oxford University
Press; also available through Oxford Scholarship Online). Being Yourself: Essays
on Identity, Action, and Social Life is a collection of her (mostly) previously pub-
lishedessays(2004,RowmanandLittlefield). Shehaseditedsevencollectionsand
publishedmanyjournalarticlesandchaptersinbooks.
ChristineOverall is a Professor of Philosophy and holds a University Research
Chair at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. She is the author of five books,
themostrecentofwhichisAging,Death,andHumanLongevity: APhilosophical
Inquiry. Herresearchandteachingareintheareasoffeministphilosophy,philoso-
phyofreligion,socialphilosophy,andappliedethics.
LisaRivera is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Mas-
sachusetts, Boston, where she teaches and writes on political philosophy, ethical
theory,feministphilosophyandglobalethics.Herpublishedarticlesconcernwhat
moralitycandemandofusandpoliticalliberalism’ssolutiontotheproblemofmoral
conflictinliberalsocieties.Hercurrentworkconsidershowethicalobligationsmay
beshapedbypoliticalmembershipandsociallocation.
SallyJ.Scholz isaProfessorofPhilosophyandresidentfacultyintheCenterfor
PeaceandJusticeEducationatVillanovaUniversity.Inadditiontonumerousarticles
on violence against women, oppression, and just war theory, her publications
include the books On de Beauvoir (Wadsworth 2000), On Rousseau (Wadsworth
2001), and Political Solidarity (Penn State Press 2008), and the co-edited Peace-
making:LessonsfromthePast,VisionfortheFuture(withJudithPresler)andThe
Contradictions of Freedom: Philosophical Essays on Simone de Beauvoir’s ‘Les
Mandarins’ (with Shannon Mussett). Scholz is currently co-editor of the Journal
forPeaceandJusticeStudiesandformereditoroftheAPANewsletteronFeminism
andPhilosophy.
LisaTessman is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Women’s Studies at
Binghamton University, where she directs the graduate program in Social, Politi-
cal, Ethical and Legal Philosophy (SPEL). She has published a collection that she
co-edited with Bat-Ami Bar On called Jewish Locations: Traversing Racialized
