Discrepant data : women and the western philosophic tradition

Abstract

This thesis is centred around certain metaphilosophical issues associated with the built in masculine bias of the western philosophic tradition. Primarily it is concerned with methodological issues and those associated with what has been considered legitimate and proper subject matter for philosophers to pursue. To highlight the above points this thesis journeys into social and political philosophy and medical ethics. In political philosophy, Rawls' conception of justice and the current care/justice morality debate, come in for particular attention. The public/private split as conceived of by the mainstream of the western philosophic tradition and arguments centred around women as the 'reproducers' of children as a major justification for their non-participation in the public arena, are also topics which are looked at in some depth. In medical ethics the issue of the 'rights' of individuals as conceived of within liberal democratic theory and from the justice perspective are highlighted. In this respect, the narrowness of this theory and this perspective, and the contradictions manifest about the rights of individual women with regard to reproductive issues, come in for particular attention. In addition to the narrow focus of the tradition as far as subject matter is concerned, the above illustrations bring to the fore certain problems associated with both method and methodology within the western philosophic tradition. As such: this thesis utilises the work of various feminist and Postmodernist theorists to highlight these problems. Thus, it argues that were the perspectives of women and other 'Others' to be accounted for in the methodology, methodologies and methods of the tradition, then not only would the focus of the tradition be dramatically altered, but many of the central features of the tradition would be defined and utilised differently.