Feminism As Radical Humanism

For Johnson, feminism must recognize itself as a humanism in order to avoid certain theoretical quagmires. [The argument] is extremely provocative, and even, I would say, necessary. This book is sure to be controversial and of interest to a wide audience in feminist theory. I know of no other treatment of feminism and humanism that is so clear, cogent, and systematic. Judith Grant University of Southern California Feminism is currently at an impasse. Both the liberation feminism of the 1970’s and the more recent feminism of difference are increasingly faced with the limitations of their own perspectives. While feminists today generally acknowledge the need to recognise diversity, they lack a coherent framework through which this need can be articulated. In Feminism as Radical Humanism, Pauline Johnson calls for a reassessment of feminism’s relationship to modern humanism. She argues that despite its very thorough and necessary critique of mainstream formulations of humanist ideals, feminism itself remains strongly committed to humanist values. Drawing on a broad range of political and intellectual traditions, Johnson demonstrates that, only by proudly affirming its own humanist commitments can feminist theory find a way to negotiate the impasse in which it currently finds itself. Feminism as Radical Humanism is an important and controversial contribution to feminist theory, and to the ongoing debate about the meaning of contemporary humanism.

This text challenges the direction taken by much recent work in the field of feminist studies. It mounts a defence of humanism - a tradition of which many contemporary feminists have been sharply critical, as they saw reason as constructed by men and oppressing women.

Philosophy has strayed away from its main task of clarifying proprieties of pursuits in human- life and has got caught up in methodology, logic and Linguistics. Too much hair-splitting is done about truth, knowledge, reality and language. Our main concerns should be Duty, Beauty, Piety and Complementarity. Substantial factors of fortuity and self-earned conditions are simply not considered in political philosophy. Equality is too problematic to take it as an ethical principle. Justice is being over-emphasized than Non-violence and Prosperity (almost in vain). The disaster of scientific socialism had its roots in Marxian theory itself. Antagonistic radicalisms including radical feminism are deepening the problems than solving them. Scientism (Materialist reductionism) is under-cutting the very sense of Responsibility! Existentialist and Post-Modernist traditions are leading to nowhere and only generating despair and sense of meaninglessness. Deep-Ecology is becoming Anthropo-phobic and blocking Human progress. Religious dogmatisms and fundamentalisms cannot be fought with by merely refuting truth-claims of their beliefs. A ‘non-supernatural’ spirituology will have to earn ‘therapeutic’ success over the clutches of religions. Any pair of required factors ‘competing as well as complementary’ is a dialectical pair. Their balance has to be finely tuned and wisdom lies precisely there. One-sided thinking often destroys the balance and intensifies Evils. There is an eminent possibility of convergence towards universal humanist ethic and scope for common minimum program in spite of multitude of ethics. In short, there is a possibility of a constructive, ameliorative and reconciliatory path for humanity at this juncture of human history.

Critique in a Neoliberal Age brings a critique of ideology to main debates within economic sociology, populism studies, the neoliberal university, therapy culture, contemporary intimacies and feminism. Over the last decades, neoliberalism has worked to lift social protections and political regulations from the market and to identify modernity with capitalism itself. It has also engaged in an ideological project to screen alternative measurements of progress. Liberal and social democracy have been effectively disabled as grounds for weighing the costs of neoliberal predations. This volume examines the strategies through which neoliberalism has reconstituted and de-politicized liberal precepts such as universal justice, private right and a social democratic project responsive to needs. As such it will appeal to scholars and students of sociology and social and critical theory, political and social philosophy, politics, cultural studies and feminist thought.

The late Susan Moller Okin was a leading political theorist whose scholarship integrated political philosophy and issues of gender, the family, and culture. Okin argued that liberalism, properly understood as a theory opposed to social hierarchies and supportive of individual freedom and equality, provided the tools for criticizing the substantial and systematic inequalities between men and women. Her thought was deeply informed by a feminist view that theories of justice must apply equally to women as men, and she was deeply engaged in showing how many past and present political theories failed to do this. She sought to rehabilitate political theories--particularly that of liberal egalitarianism, in such a way as to accommodate the equality of the sexes, and with an eye toward improving the condition of women and families in a world of massive gender inequalities. In her lifetime Okin was widely respected as a scholar whose engagement went well beyond the world of theory, and her premature death in 2004 was considered by many a major blow to progressive political thought and women's interests around the world. This volume stems from a conference on Okin, and contains articles by some of the top feminist and political philosophers working today. They are organized around a set of themes central to Okin's work, namely liberal theory, gender and the family, feminist and cultural differences, and global justice. Included are major figures such as Joshua Cohen, David Miller, Cass Sunstein, Alison Jaggar, and Iris Marion Young, among others. Their aim is not to celebrate Okin's work, but to constructively engage with it and further its goals.

This text challenges the direction taken by much recent work in the field of feminist studies. It mounts a defence of humanism - a tradition of which many contemporary feminists have been sharply critical. Many feminists have viewed reason and rationality with deep suspicion. They have argued that reason was constructed by male philosophers in a way that excluded feminine traits: the man of reason was a masculine fiction. But this rejection of humanism assumes that there is only one tradition of humanism and only one conception of the rational individual.

For over a decade, feminist studies have occupied an extraordinary position in the United States. On the one hand, they have contributed to the development of a strong ‘identity’ politics; on the other, they have been part of the post-structuralist critique of the unified subject – its experience, truth and presence – and of the massive challenge to Western metaphysics and humanism. Along with race and ethnic studies, feminist enquiry has moved beyond the fiction of a unitary feminism to address the differences within the study of difference. The essays in this volume all address feminism’s relationships to theory and politics at the level of the criticism and production of knowledge. Readers and students of politics, history, literature, philosophy, sociology and the sciences – anyone with a stake in theory and politics – will benefit from this powerful book.

With Emancipation And Education, And The Awakening Among Women That Spread To All Parts Of The World, It Was But Natural For Feminism To Grow Into A Struggle For Women S Human Rights. This Book Outlines The Beginnings Of The Ferment Of Women S Liberation And Feminism. It Approaches The Subject From All Angles And Puts It In The Right Perspective. Written In A Lucid And Concise Style, It Explains What Feminism Is All About, What Are Its Linkages To Human Rights And Humanism, How It Evolved, How It Grew From Strength To Strength Despite Pressures And Obstacles Set By Vested Interests And How It Developed Into A World-Wide Movement That Finally Came To Be Described As The Women S Liberation Movement, Or Women S Lib. The Chapters Include Issues In Feminism And Humanism, Cultural Basis Of Feminism, Economic Basis Of Feminism, Problems Of Feminism And Marxism, Radical Feminism, Feminism S Changing Role In Liberalism, The Age Of Enlightenment And Feminism, Feminism And Existentialism And The New Feminist Moral Vision. This Comprehensive Coverage Will Make This Book Useful For Indian Scholars, Educationists, Researchers In Women S Studies And Sociologists To Hone Their Own Perceptions Of Feminism.