Philosophy, Gender and Feminism

Teacher(s)

Botbol Mylene;

Language

French

Main themes

This course studies some of the central issues in the relationship between philosophy and feminist questions, through a selection of topics such as the deconstruction of the history of philosophy from the point of view of gender, feminist perspectives on autonomy, the body and personal identity, feminist epistemology, issues of ethics and political philosophy relating to injustices and inequalities of gender. Without necessarily aiming to be exhaustive, the course will introduce various philosophical approaches to the topic of gender (analytical, continental, Marxist, liberal, pragmatist, postcolonial, ecofeminist, ethics of care, etc.), their points of convergence as well as their disagreements. The course will be based on a selection of texts from authors who have made a significant contribution to these questions, for example : Condorcet and Sophie de Grouchy, Mary Wollstonecraft, John Stuart Mill, Edith Stein, Simone de Beauvoir, Carol Gilligan, Hélène Cixous, Carole Pateman, Claudia Card, Julia Kristeva, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Marilyn Friedman, Martha Nussbaum, Susan Moller Okin, Nancy Fraser, Eva Kittay, Donna Haraway, Iris Marion Young, Anne Phillips, Seyla Benhabib, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Geneviève Fraisse, Judith Butler and Uma Narayan.

Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	By the end of the course, students will be able to deal with philosophical questions relating to gender and feminism in a way which is both informed and personal. Students will be able to : situate a question and/or an author in the feminist philosophical debates ; distinguish different philosophical approaches to gender and feminist issues, and characterise the views put forward by the authors studied during the course ; distinguish the contribution of a philosophical thought on the kind of contribution of other disciplines (e.g. sociology, history, psychology, political science, geography) ; conceptualise a question relating to gender and to feminist topics and define the philosophical issues ; develop an informed and personal line of argument on a philosophical question relating to gender and feminist topics ; develop thinking on this line of argument, take into account possible or existing objections ; explain with clarity, both orally and in writing,  the treatment of a philosophical question relating to gender and to feminist topics ; use the main research tools necessary to become informed about the issues studied during the course; adopt the accepted standards for quotation of contemporary philosophy.

Content

This course offers an introduction to feminist philosophy and the specific critical concepts and thematic addressed by the diversity of feminisms since the 20th century (from Simone de Beauvoir to Judith Butler).
Our main frame of reference will be French theory feminism and our core concepts : corporeity, violence, care, in a gendered perspective.
    Mylène Botbol-Baum

Bibliography

Bibliographie recommandée

1. Article "feminism", Encyclopedia Britannica
2. Simone de Beauvoir, Le deuxième sexe, Vol 2
3. Nancy Frazer, Feminism for the 99%, a manifesto, ed Verso 2019
4. Judith Butler, Trouble dans le genre, pour un féminisme de la subversion, ed La découverte
5. Rosi Braidotti, Nomadic Subjects, Columbia University Press
6. Judith Butler, Humain inhumain, le travail critique des normes, ed Amsterdam
7. Micaela di Leonardo, Gender at the crossroads of knowledge, University of California Press
8. Judith Butler, Du genre à la non violence, Mylène Botbol-Baum (dir), ed Au bord de l'eau

Teaching materials

• Simone de Beauvoir, "Le deuxième sexe" Vol 1
• Judith Butler, "Défaire le genre"
• Textes ajoutés dans Moodle

Faculty or entity

FIAL