FEMINIST ETHICS // WST/PHI 4632 // T R 9:30-10:45 // SPRING, 1993 PROFESSOR: Dr. Linda Lopez McAlister, Department of Women's Studies Office: HMS 460, Tampa Campus, USF. Telephone: 813-974-3496 (office); 813-988-8738 (home) Office Hrs: T R 3-5 and by appointment TEXTS: Mill, John Stuart, The Subjection of Women Gilligan, Carol, In A Different Voice Noddings, Nel, Women and Evil Daly, Mary, Gyn/Ecology Browning Cole, Eve and Susan Coultrap- McQuin, Explorations in Feminist Ethics Hoagland, Sarah Lucia, Lesbian Ethics Cannon, Katie, Black Womanist Ethics Plus the occasional handout. COURSE DESCRIPTION The purpose of this course is to explore some of the main currents of (mostly contemporary U.S.) feminist ethics--a field of study which has, for all intents and purposes, only come into existence in the last twenty years and which includes work done by philosophers, psychologists, theologians, poets and many others. We will start by asking if and why there is a need for something called "feminist ethics" at all. (Isn't ethics, like mathematics, the same for everybody?) The effort to answer that question requires us to undertake a very brief look, to provide us with some background in philosophical ethics, at the views on this question of some of the major figures in the history of ethics: Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, and Friederich Nietzsche, and their views on ethics and on women as moral agents. We will encounter our first feminist ethicist in the 19th C. philosopher and political reformer John Stuart Mill, a Utilitarian and Liberal who believed that there are no essential differences between men and women, that they have, at least in theory, the same status as moral agents, and thus the main ethical problem for feminists to address is how to claim the equal rights they are entitled to. We will explore how 20th C. liberal feminists have embraced this "rights" tradition as well, and consider its advantages and its inadequacies as a feminist ethic. Taking another approach, Carol Gilligan, a developmental psychologist, has pursued the idea that there might indeed be significant differences between men's and women's "moral voice" and this has prompted an enormous debate about how traditionally "feminine" activities and traits might ber the basis for a different, and possibly superior morality. Nel Noddings' study of evil from a woman's perspective is such a work. The most vociferous proponent of men's and women's different moral natures is probably the radical feminist philosopher/theologian Mary Daly in her "Metaethics of Radical Feminism" Gyn/Ecology, in which she strives to bring about a complete revolution in ethics, a Nietzschean transvaluation of values, the likes of which Nietzsche never imagined. But not all feminists seeking radical change go along with Daly and we will consider criticisms of her by women of color and by a radical feminst theologian. Other contemporary feminists are writing ethics from the standpoint of their own particular group's positioning within society, for example Katie G. Cannon's Black Womanist Ethics and Sara Lucia Hoagland's Lesbian Ethics which hearkens back to a more flexible, an almost Aristotelian kind of virtue ethics for an that says what kind of character traits we should seek to develop if individuals in a specific community are to flourish. What should we be trying to accomplish as we study feminist ethics? Feminist philosopher Claudia Card suggests four things: "We need to identify our possibilities for agency in oppressive contexts.... We need to distinguish modes of resistance that would make our survival and our deeds worthwhile from those that would not.... We need to articulate ideals of the person and community that can acknowledge our histories and yet provide bases for pride in ourselves and each other.... We need to be alert to the dangers of becoming what we despise" (Feminist Ethics, 26). WORK OF THE COURSE: ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION. Regular attendance and active participation in classroom activities is an essential part of this course. You will be graded on both the quantity and quality of your contributions to in-class discussions and explorations. This will count for 10% of your semester grade. Roll will be taken. WORKING PAPERS. Each week (starting week 3) I will hand out a list of study questions to serve as a guide for thinking about your reading assignments. You should get in the habit of reviewing these questions and making sure you have an idea how to answer each of them. Starting Week 3, I will collect 1-2 page working papers based on one of these questions or on a topic of your own choosing in which you engage in a conversation about some point or idea in the week's assignment which particularly intrigues, interests, angers or puzzles you and about which you have something you want to say. Each student must turn in five such working papers during the course of the semester. These working papers will count for 20% of your grade for the course. EXAMINATIONS. There will be three non-cumulative preliminary examinations in the course, in the 5th, 10th, and 16th week of the semester. Each will count for 15% of your grade in the course. There will be no final examination. A TERM PAPER of approximately 10 pages, typed, double spaced, is due on April 22. More information about the contents of the paper will be provided early in the semester. The paper will be worth 25% of your grade in the course. COURSE SCHEDULE WEEK 1 January 7 Introduction to the course, to class members and to the subject matter. For Tuesday read handout on Aristotelian ethics. WEEK 2 Jan 12/14 This week is devoted to a brief background look at the different approaches to ethics taken by three of the major figues in the history of patriarchal ethics: Aristotle, Kant, and Nietzsche. For Thursday read selections from Kant and Nietzsche (handouts). And start reading Mill, The Subjugation of Women, Ch. 1 and 2. WEEK 3 Jan 19 Discussion: Are there really diffferences in men's and women's natures as Aristotle, Kant and Nietzsche claim? What do YOU think? Why? What criteria are you using? What evidence can you cite for your view? What implications does your position have for ethics? For Thursday come to class prepared to give Mill's answers to the above questions. Jan 21 Mill's Classical Liberal view of feminism and ethics. For Tuesday read Mill, Ch. 3 and 4. WEEK 4 Jan 26 If men and women are ethically androgynous, so to speak, as liberals would contend, what would a feminist ethics be like? Mill and contemporary liberal feminists on rights, laws, rules, and justice. For Thursday read Jarvis-Thomson paper (handout), Browning Cole, "Toward a Feminist Conception of Moral Life," and Walker "Moral Understandings" in Explorations in Feminist Ethics. Jan 28 Shortcomings of liberal feminist ethics. Introduction to contemporary feminist ethics. Week 5 Feb 2 First Preliminary Examination For Thursday read Carol Gilligan, In A Different Voice, Chs. 1-3. Feb 4 A developmental psychological approach to moral reasoning and a challenge to the Kantian tradition. For Tuesday read Gilligan, Ch. 4-6. WEEK 6 Feb 9 What is the import of Gilligan's research? Are there really different moral voices? Are they gender or sex specific? For Thursday read Romain, "Care and Confusion"; Rigterink, "Warning:..." Feb 11 The "Care vs. Justice" debate. For Tuesday read Manning "Just Caring"; and Dillon "Care and Respect" and Ruddick, "From Maternal Thinking to Peace Politics" Explorations in Feminist Ethics. WEEK 7 Feb. 16 Extensions of an ethic of care. For Thursday read Noddings, Women and Evil, Intro., Ch. 1, the summaries of Chs. 2 and 3 (p.57-58 and p.88-89) and Ch. 4. Feb 18 Constructing an ethic from women's experience: Noddings' morality of evil. For Tuesday read Ch. 5, the summaries of Chs. 6 and 7, and Chs. 8 and 9. WEEK 8 Feb 23 Reactions to Noddings' effort to develop a women's standpoint ethic. For Thursday read: Mary Daly, Gyn/Ecology, Introduction, Prelude to the First Passage, and Ch. I Deadly Deception Feb 25 Radical Feminist Ethics. Nietzsche's Uebermensch is coming and boy is she pissed! For Tuesday read Daly, Prelude to the Second Passage, any chapter of your choice in The Second Passage. WEEK 9 Mar 2 Dis-covering Phallocratic Atrocities, For Thursday read the Prelude to the Third Passage and any chapter of your choice in The Third Passage. Mar. 4 Daly's Radical Feminist Transvaluation of Values For Tuesday read papers by Audre Lorde and Beverly Wildung Harrison (handouts). WEEK 10 Mar. 9 Radical Feminist Critiques of Daly. March 11 Second Preliminary Exam WEEK 11 Spring Break. Extra Credit Opportunity: Society for Women in Philosophy Conference, March 19-21. For Tuesday March 23 read Katie G. Cannon Black Womanist Ethics (entire book) and Charlotte Bunche "A Global Perspective on Feminist Ethics and Diversity." WEEK 12 Mar. 23 Feminist ethics in a multicultural world. A universal feminist ethic or standpoint ethics? For Thursday Mar. 25 read Friedman "Feminism and Modern Friendship" in Explorations and Sara Hoagland, Lesbian Ethics, Introduction and Ch. 1. Mar. 25 Feminism and communitarian ethics. For Tuesday read Lesbian Ethics, Ch. 2 WEEK 13 Mar. 30 Feminine Virtues and Female Agency For Thursday read Hoagland "Engaging and Binding" pp. 143-154; "Playing through Boundaries" pp. 241-246; "Integrity and Agency, pp. 284-291; and "Conclusion" pp. 293-302. Apr 1 What are the character traits that will assist the lesbian community to flourish? For Tues. read Marilyn Frye "A Response to Lesbian Ethics" and Maria Lugones "Hispaneando y Lesbiando" in Hypatia 5(3)--available in the Library periodicals section, the Women's Studies Reading Room HMS 457, the Philosophy Department Reading Room--and Linda Lopez McAlister "A Review of Hoagland's Lesbian Ethics" (handout). WEEK 14 April 6 Reactions to Lesbian Ethics. For Thursday read Tomm, Fox, and Calhoun in Explorations April 8 Constructing and Ethical Life For Tuesday read Raugust, and the Canadian Feminist Ethics Theory Group in Explorations WEEK 15 April 13 Working Within a Feminist Ethic April 15 Film: A Question of Silence (Class will begin at 9:15 a.m. and will run until ll:00 today only). WEEK 16 April 20 Third Preliminary Exam April 22 Grand Finale, Course Evaluation, and Term Papers Due