
Rethinking Ethics in the Midst of Violence
A Feminist Approach to Freedom
Linda A. Bell(Author)
Rowman & Littlefield (Publisher)
Published on 9. July 1993
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-0-8476-7844-0 (ISBN)
Description
Selected by Choice as an Outstanding Academic Book for 1995. Moving beyond the traditional feminist ethics of care, Linda A. Bell places an existentialist conception of liberation at the heart of ethics and argues that only an ethics of freedom sufficiently allows for feminist critique and opposition to a status quo imbued with violence. She offers a critique of Aristotelian, utilitarian, and Kantian ethics, analyzing each approach from feminist perspectives and showing how each fails women and others who resist oppression.
Reviews / Votes
The work is no less than a tour de force treatment of problems in contemporary ethical theory-especially as these problems concern questions of violence (and violation) and freedom. * Sartre Studies International * . . . Bell's book advances feminist ethics by its comprehensive analysis of the key issues confronting contemporary ethicists. Her use of Sartre is unique and quite valuable for feminists and others who work against oppression. * Radical Philosophy * I see Linda Bell's work as continuing, in important ways, certain traditions in the feminist writings of Mary Daly, Marilyn Frye, Sarah Hoagland, and Maria Lugones. These traditions include taking seriously violence against women, seeking to understand and expose interconnections of racism and sexism, not being preoccupied with the concepts of family or law, centering freedom rather than care-taking, and looking to playfulness as an alternative to current obsessions with control. -- Claudia Card, University of Wisconsin, Madison A powerful contribution to feminist ethics. Its uniqueness stems from its centering of both violence and freedom in ways that create special possibilities for both a critique of Western ethics and the development of a Sartrean-inspired feminist alternative. -- BatAmi Bar On, Director of Women's Studies, SUNY, Binghamton . . . a good addition to feminist ethical perspectives and a good bibliographic source for feminist sociopolitical and moral theroy. -- Sally J. Scholz, Villanova University An excellent book which reviews the ethical dilemmas faced by contemporary feminist philosophers. . . . a very good review of many of the dilemmas of contemporary ethics. . . . This book is a must for feminists... * CHOICE *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Lanham, MD
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
576 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8476-7844-0 (9780847678440)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Linda A. Bell is professor of philosophy at Georgia State University.
Content
Feminist Ethics - Rethinking Some Fundamental Concepts; The Place in Ethics of Nature and Needs; Freedom Versus Pleasure and Universalisability; The Role of Violence in Ethics; Recognition of Love as an Ideal; The Role of Play vis a vis Relativism, Futility and Revolution.