Feminist Philosophy
- LAST REVIEWED: 29 May 2015
- LAST MODIFIED: 29 May 2015
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396577-0152
- LAST REVIEWED: 29 May 2015
- LAST MODIFIED: 29 May 2015
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396577-0152
Introduction
Feminist perspectives in all academic disciplines are concerned with questions about the status of women. Feminists offer analyses of, and propose solutions for, the disadvantage suffered by women in many societies. They provide accounts of gender and gender roles, sexuality and sex, and femininity; they uncover whatever biases might be present in the presuppositions of a theory or line of inquiry. This entry is specifically concerned with feminist philosophy, broadly conceived, which involves approaching feminist questions and problems from a philosophical perspective, and looking at the traditional questions of philosophy so as to reveal possible sexist assumptions and to propose alternative nonsexist proposals.
Textbooks
There are a number of textbooks on feminist philosophy currently available, although there is lot of variance in the ground covered. Some textbooks provide overviews of the main positions in feminist thought and are organized chronologically, while others focus on specific issues or topics. Tong 2008 has chapters on all the main positions in feminist thought. Stone 2007 focuses on sex, sexuality, gender, and the issue of essentialism. Saul 2003 and Schott 2003 are both organized thematically.
Saul, Jennifer M. Feminism: Issues and Arguments. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Focuses on ethical and political issues such as discrimination, pornography, and sexual harassment, and offers proposals for possible solutions. Designed for an introductory-level undergraduate course, and thus provides and a good entry point to these debates.
Schott, Robin May. Discovering Feminist Philosophy: Knowledge, Ethics, Politics, Feminist Constructions. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.
This accessible introduction aims to show the relevance of feminism today, and thus answer the charge that feminism is no longer relevant. It includes chapters on the history of philosophy, epistemology, and ethics.
Stone, Alison. An Introduction to Feminist Philosophy. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2007.
Offers a survey of themes in the metaphysics of sex and gender within feminist philosophy. It is written extremely clearly, but its theoretical focus makes it more suitable for upper-level undergraduate courses.
Tong, Rosemarie. Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive Introduction. 3d ed. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2008.
This introduction, suitable for undergraduates at all levels, offers comprehensive overviews of all the main positions in feminist (mainly political) thought and of some key feminist thinkers. It includes chapters on liberal, radical, and Marxist feminism as well as extended discussions of more recent positions such as postcolonial and psychoanalytic feminism.
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- A Priori Knowledge
- Abduction and Explanatory Reasoning
- Ability
- Abortion
- Abstract Objects
- Action
- Addams, Jane
- Adorno, Theodor
- Aesthetic Hedonism
- Aesthetics, Analytic Approaches to
- Aesthetics, Continental
- Aesthetics, Environmental
- Aesthetics, History of
- African Philosophy, Contemporary
- Alexander, Samuel
- Analytic/Synthetic Distinction
- Anarchism, Philosophical
- Animal Rights
- Anscombe, G. E. M.
- Anthropic Principle, The
- Anti-Natalism
- Applied Ethics
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- Argument Mapping
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- Art and Knowledge
- Art and Morality
- Artifacts
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- Astell, Mary
- Atheism
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- Austin, J. L.
- Autonomy
- Bacon, Francis
- Bayesianism
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- Bergson, Henri
- Berkeley, George
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- British Idealism
- Buber, Martin
- Buddhist Philosophy
- Burge, Tyler
- Business Ethics
- Camus, Albert
- Canterbury, Anselm of
- Carnap, Rudolf
- Causation
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- Certainty
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- Childhood, Philosophy of
- Chinese Philosophy
- Cognitive Ability
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- Cognitive Science, Philosophy of
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- Computer Simulations
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- de Montaigne, Michel
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- Doing and Allowing
- du Châtelet, Emilie
- Dummett, Michael
- Dutch Book Arguments
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- Evil
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- Evolutionary Epistemology
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- Externalism and Internalism in the Philosophy of Mind
- Faith, Conceptions of
- Fatalism
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- Feminist Philosophy
- Feyerabend, Paul
- Fichte, Johann Gottlieb
- Fiction
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- Heaven and Hell
- Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich: Aesthetics
- Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich: Metaphysics
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- Heidegger, Martin: Early Works
- Hermeneutics
- Higher Education, Philosophy of
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- Horkheimer, Max
- Human Rights
- Hume, David: Aesthetics
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- Husserl, Edmund
- Idealizations in Science
- Identity in Physics
- Images
- Imagination
- Imagination and Belief
- Immanuel Kant: Political and Legal Philosophy
- Impossible Worlds
- Incommensurability in Science
- Indian Philosophy
- Indispensability of Mathematics
- Inductive Reasoning
- Infinitism
- Instruments in Science
- Intellectual Humility
- Intentionality, Collective
- Intuitions
- James, William
- Japanese Philosophy
- Kant and the Laws of Nature
- Kant, Immanuel: Aesthetics and Teleology
- Kant, Immanuel: Ethics
- Kant, Immanuel: Theoretical Philosophy
- Kierkegaard, Søren
- Knowledge
- Knowledge-first Epistemology
- Knowledge-How
- Kristeva, Julia
- Kuhn, Thomas S.
- Lacan, Jacques
- Lakatos, Imre
- Langer, Susanne
- Language of Thought
- Language, Philosophy of
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- Laws of Nature
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- Levinas, Emmanuel
- Lewis, C. I.
- Liberty
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- Locke, John
- Locke, John: Identity, Persons, and Personal Identity
- Logic
- Lottery and Preface Paradoxes, The
- Lucretius
- Machiavelli, Niccolò
- Martin Heidegger: Later Works
- Martin Heidegger: Middle Works
- Marx, Karl
- Material Constitution
- Mathematical Explanation
- Mathematical Pluralism
- Mathematical Structuralism
- Mathematics, Ontology of
- Mathematics, Philosophy of
- Mathematics, Visual Thinking in
- McDowell, John
- McTaggart, John
- Meaning of Life, The
- Mechanisms in Science
- Medically Assisted Dying
- Medicine, Contemporary Philosophy of
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- Memory
- Mental Causation
- Mereology
- Merleau-Ponty, Maurice
- Meta-epistemological Skepticism
- Metaepistemology
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- Metaphysics, Contemporary
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- Midgley, Mary
- Mill, John Stuart
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- Modality
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- Modularity
- Montesquieu
- Moore, G. E.
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- Moral Responsibility
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- Murdoch, Iris
- Music, Analytic Philosophy of
- Nationalism
- Natural Kinds
- Naturalism in the Philosophy of Mathematics
- Naïve Realism
- Neo-Confucianism
- Neuroscience, Philosophy of
- Nietzsche, Friedrich
- Nonexistent Objects
- Normative Ethics
- Normative Foundations, Philosophy of Law:
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- Objectivity
- Occasionalism
- Olfaction
- Ontological Dependence
- Ontology of Art
- Ordinary Objects
- Other Minds
- Pacifism
- Pain
- Panpsychism
- Paradoxes
- Particularism in Ethics
- Pascal, Blaise
- Paternalism
- Patriotism
- Peirce, Charles Sanders
- Perception, Cognition, Action
- Perception, The Problem of
- Perfectionism
- Persistence
- Personal Identity
- Phenomenal Concepts
- Phenomenal Conservatism
- Phenomenology
- Philosophy for Children
- Photography, Analytic Philosophy of
- Physicalism
- Physicalism and Metaphysical Naturalism
- Physics, Experiments in
- Plato
- Plotinus
- Political Epistemology
- Political Obligation
- Political Philosophy
- Popper, Karl
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- Practical Moral Skepticism
- Practical Reason
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- Pragmatism
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- Probability, Interpretations of
- Problem of Divine Hiddenness, The
- Problem of Evil, The
- Propositions
- Psychology, Philosophy of
- Punishment
- Pyrrhonism
- Qualia
- Quietism
- Quine, W. V. O.
- Race
- Racist Jokes
- Rationalism
- Rationality
- Rawls, John: Moral and Political Philosophy
- Realism and Anti-Realism
- Realism, Pictorial
- Realization
- Reasons in Epistemology
- Reductionism in Biology
- Reference, Theory of
- Reid, Thomas
- Relativism
- Reliabilism
- Religion, Philosophy of
- Religious Belief, Epistemology of
- Religious Experience
- Religious Pluralism
- Ricoeur, Paul
- Rights
- Risk, Philosophy of
- Rorty, Richard
- Rousseau, Jean-Jacques
- Rule-Following
- Russell, Bertrand
- Ryle, Gilbert
- Sartre, Jean-Paul
- Schopenhauer, Arthur
- Science and Religion
- Science, Theoretical Virtues in
- Scientific Explanation
- Scientific Progress
- Scientific Realism
- Scientific Representation
- Scientific Revolutions
- Scotus, Duns
- Self-Knowledge
- Sellars, Wilfrid
- Semantic Externalism
- Semantic Minimalism
- Semiotics
- Seneca
- Senses, The
- Sensitivity Principle in Epistemology
- Shepherd, Mary
- Singular Thought
- Situated Cognition
- Situationism and Virtue Theory
- Skepticism, Contemporary
- Skepticism, History of
- Slurs, Pejoratives, and Hate Speech
- Smith, Adam: Moral and Political Philosophy
- Social Aspects of Scientific Knowledge
- Social Epistemology
- Social Identity
- Sounds and Auditory Perception
- Space and Time
- Speech Acts
- Spinoza, Baruch
- Stebbing, Susan
- Strawson, P. F.
- Structural Realism
- Suicide
- Supererogation
- Supervenience
- Tarski, Alfred
- Technology, Philosophy of
- Testimony, Epistemology of
- Theoretical Terms in Science
- Thomas Aquinas' Philosophy of Religion
- Thought Experiments
- Time and Tense
- Time Travel
- Toleration
- Torture
- Transcendental Arguments
- Tropes
- Trust
- Truth
- Truth and the Aim of Belief
- Truthmaking
- Turing Test
- Two-Dimensional Semantics
- Understanding
- Uniqueness and Permissiveness in Epistemology
- Utilitarianism
- Vagueness
- Value of Knowledge
- Vienna Circle
- Virtue Epistemology
- Virtue Ethics
- Virtues, Epistemic
- Virtues, Intellectual
- Voluntarism, Doxastic
- War
- Weakness of Will
- Weil, Simone
- Well-Being
- William of Ockham
- Williams, Bernard
- Wisdom
- Wittgenstein, Ludwig: Early Works
- Wittgenstein, Ludwig: Later Works
- Wittgenstein, Ludwig: Middle Works
- Wollstonecraft, Mary