A )History of Ethics – When we think of philosophers, ethicists, names such as Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Augustine, Aquinas, Kant, Rawls come to mind.  In other words, men .  With rare exceptions (redundant, I know – just making a point), ethics history is rife with male authors.  It would follow that if men are doing about 99% of the writing, who’s doing the reading?  And the teaching?  Hmmm – probably men?  Presumably, the history may be charted by the following:  1 – the starting point  -  the isolated individual, how individuals should treat one another, an ethics of strangers, at war with one another, but needing some direction. 2 – the social contract theory – how isolated individuals entered into moral relationships, moving from autonomous moral agents into a harmonious existence with one another.  For a good example of how entrenched a perspective had become, Google Rousseau’s educational tract “Emile” (1762), and see how much has not changed.  Given that, the resulting philosophical underpinnings we have are: 3 – impartiality and universality – Kant – the ideal rational moral agent acts on maxims that can be universalized; the utilitarian works as the ideal impartial calculator.  And life grows and interweaves itself among those markers. But what if it were possible to cast a different light upon this course of life? 1 – the starting point – the mother/child combination instead of the isolated individual.  A kind of connectedness instead of a stranger with the associated ramifications [Carolyn Whitbeck]. 2 – a building of trust , as distinct from a contractual idea [Annette Baier]. 3 – the resulting reliance on relationship instead of impartiality and universality [Carol Gilligan].  Is Lioi advocating the overthrow of all previous ethical work? Of course not.  Just add this to it.  Another overlay.  Another light with which to view the moral life. B )Ethics of Care – as a gathering response to the male-oriented history of ethics, Carol Gilligan (1982) published “In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development.”  Ok, so it wasn’t about ethics as such, but it did shine a different light on a whole bunch of areas: philosophy, religion, clinical psychology, political science, literature, art criticism.  Women began finding their voice in every field.  The metaphor of voice became the symbol, the marker, the focal point.  Voice over theory became the perspective.  Voice was potentially more capable of integrating differences harmoniously.  There’s no individuality in theory.  In voice we have tone, texture.  Voice combines both emotion and content – how as well as what is said.  Voice is not true or false, but strong or weak, lilting or deep, hesitant or confident.  Voices may be different without excluding one another, as in singers in a chorus.  Another way of appreciating the theory-voice transformation is using the “Heinz Dilemma:”  Heinz’s wife is critically ill with a rare form of cancer. .

1. A
)History of Ethics – When we think of philosophers, ethicists,
names such as Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Augustine, Aquinas,
Kant, Rawls come to mind. In other words,
men
. With rare exceptions (redundant, I know – just making a
point), ethics history is rife with male authors. It would follow
that if men are doing about 99% of the writing, who’s doing the
reading? And the teaching? Hmmm – probably men?
Presumably, the history may be charted by the following:
1 – the starting point - the isolated individual, how individuals
should treat one another, an ethics of strangers, at war with one
another, but needing some direction.
2 – the social contract theory – how isolated individuals entered
into moral relationships, moving from autonomous moral agents
into a harmonious existence with one another. For a good
example of how entrenched a perspective had become, Google
Rousseau’s educational tract “Emile” (1762), and see how much
has not changed. Given that, the resulting philosophical
underpinnings we have are:
3 – impartiality and universality – Kant – the ideal rational
moral agent acts on maxims that can be universalized; the
utilitarian works as the ideal impartial calculator. And life
grows and interweaves itself among those markers.
But
what if
it were possible to cast a different light upon this course of
life?
1 – the starting point – the
mother/child combination

2. instead of the isolated individual. A kind of connectedness
instead of a stranger with the associated ramifications [Carolyn
Whitbeck].
2 – a building of
trust
, as distinct from a contractual idea [Annette Baier].
3 – the resulting reliance on
relationship
instead of impartiality and universality [Carol Gilligan]. Is Lioi
advocating the overthrow of all previous ethical work? Of
course not. Just add this to it. Another overlay. Another light
with which to view the moral life.
B
)Ethics of Care – as a gathering response to the male-oriented
history of ethics, Carol Gilligan (1982) published “In a
Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s
Development.” Ok, so it wasn’t about ethics as such, but it did
shine a different light on a whole bunch of areas: philosophy,
religion, clinical psychology, political science, literature, art
criticism. Women began finding their
voice
in every field. The metaphor of voice became the symbol, the
marker, the focal point.
Voice over theory
became the perspective. Voice was potentially more capable of
integrating differences harmoniously. There’s no individuality
in theory. In voice we have tone, texture. Voice combines both
emotion and content –
how
as well as
what
is said. Voice is not true or false, but strong or weak, lilting or
deep, hesitant or confident. Voices may be different without

3. excluding one another, as in singers in a chorus.
Another way of appreciating the theory-voice transformation is
using the “Heinz Dilemma:” Heinz’s wife is critically ill with a
rare form of cancer. The only druggist who has a possible cure
is charging an outrageous amount of money which Heinz just
doesn’t have. The ‘traditional’ question posed is: should Heinz
steal the drug? Why or why not? The ‘traditional’ expected
response was yes or no and a reason. That’s what boys
responded (for example, human life is more valuable than
property). But when girls were asked, the result was a
conversation. The girls asked questions: couldn’t Heinz get a
loan? Work out a payment plan? They looked for hidden
alternatives. They were offering a different view of moral
discourse. Instead of staking a position and reasons, ethical
discourse is primarily a conversation, an interchange – leading
to the conclusion that
morality is primarily about caring.
C
)Feminist Moral Theory – begins with the awareness of
women’s oppression and argues for corrective policies. Here
are four conditions that must be met for an ethical theory to
count as Feminist Theory [Alison Jaggar].
1—must be sensitive to gender inequality, never beginning with
the assumption that men and women are similarly situated.
2—must understand individual actions within the larger context
of broader social practices.
3—must be able to provide guidance to issues traditionally seen
as within the private domain, such as personal relationships and
family issues.
4—must take the moral experiences of women seriously, though

4. not, of course, uncritically.
It’s clear that issues of gender involve issues of power.
Feminist Ethics maintains the importance of relationships but
refuses to cooperate with any efforts to confine women within
traditional patriarchal power relationships. As philosophers
take the moral experiences of women seriously, they begin to
see that there are a number of previously neglected moral issues
that merit attention. In many cases these can be understood
through the application of traditional moral concepts in new
contexts. The following is what I refer to as
Emergent Issues
– practices and occasions that have arisen, but need constant
attention:
Distinction between public and private (you’ll notice that much
has changed) – private used to mean the realm of women,
children, beyond the realm of moral protection: childrearing
responsibility, incest, child abuse, domestic violence –
experienced by the powerless.
Justice and family issues – [Justice, Gender and the Family” by
Susan Moller Okin] – just distribution of responsibilities, equal
opportunity in the workplace, employment history.
Violence and powerlessness – psychological and physical.
Seeing the world in terms of relationships makes evil the
destruction of relationships.
Sexism – stereotyping women and devaluing their moral
experience, making women less capable. Somehow embedded in
our culture. Consider the word “fuck” - used as a noun, verb,
adverb, adjective, exclamation. As a legitimate ancient Anglo-
Saxon word which has descended into the category of words to
be avoided, it’s now used to shock – and even that is lessening.

5. But behind its almost inadvertent use today is the disturbing
picture of sexual intercourse as a hurtful activity that men
inflict upon women.
Sexual harassment – seeking to extract sexual ‘
favors
’, using threats for compliance.
Pornography – reinforces sexist attitudes, but feminist
philosophers are committed to free speech; feminists agree that
porn is offensive; some [Catherine MacKinnon] maintain that
porn is action, therefore should not shielded by free speech
laws.
Feminization of poverty – poverty as a condition that women
are more likely to encounter than men. Equal pay for equal
work? Equal pay for comparable work? Distribution of pension
after divorce?
Final Comments: We all live in the same world. Women’s
moral voices spur reassessing traditional moral theory,
expanding
our stock of fundamental concepts. Feminist moral theory
opens up the possibility of a richer, more diverse moral
conversation.
Assignment:
Watch
the movie “North Country” (note instances of
emergent issues
)
Essay:
take three

6. emergent issues
from this Module 12 posting and link them to specific scenes
from the film using the
language
and
graphic representation
of the film. An “A” paper will include them; avoidance of
these terms and pictures glosses over the impact that they have
in the real life of real people.