Feminist Philosophy - Feminist Philosophy Critics

Feminist Philosophy Critics

Critics of feminist philosophy are not generally critics of feminism as a political or cultural movement; only the philosophical positions put forth under the title "feminist philosophy".

  • Paul R. Gross
  • Susan Haack
  • Norman Levitt

A phenomenological approach to the question of gender, that treats masculinity and femininity not as pertaining ascriptively to males and females, but as alternative ways, open to both women and men, of human beings presenting themselves as who they are, is taken by the Australian philosopher, Michael Eldred. 'Feminine' being is then thought as an 'interstitial' mode of encounter between you-and-me rather than showing off who one is in self-presentation. This approach is indebted to both the German tradition of dialogical philosophy and to Heidegger's questioning return to Greek ontology in search of as yet latent, alternative historical modes of (human) being apart from the established Western modes of 'substantial' standing presence.

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Famous quotes containing the words feminist philosophy, feminist, philosophy and/or critics:

    There was no need for a feminist philosophy. My mother never stopped to think that she couldn’t do something.... You didn’t have to change the rules. Just be a strong and skilled individual, work hard, do your homework, and you can do it.
    Katherine Berman Mariano (b. 1957)

    I’m not suggesting that all men are beautiful, vulnerable boys, but we all started out that way. What happened to us? How did we become monsters of feminist nightmares? The answer, of course, is that we underwent a careful and deliberate process of gender training, sometimes brutal, always dehumanizing, cutting away large chunks of ourselves. Little girls went through something similarly crippling. If the gender training was successful, we each ended up being half a person.
    Frank Pittman (20th century)

    Even healthy families need outside sources of moral guidance to keep those tensions from imploding—and this means, among other things, a public philosophy of gender equality and concern for child welfare. When instead the larger culture aggrandizes wife beaters, degrades women or nods approvingly at child slappers, the family gets a little more dangerous for everyone, and so, inevitably, does the larger world.
    Barbara Ehrenreich (20th century)

    I have been a soreheaded occupant of a file drawer labeled “Science Fiction” ... and I would like out, particularly since so many serious critics regularly mistake the drawer for a urinal.
    Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (b. 1922)