Feminist Philosophy

NSU
Symposium 2016:
Ethics.
Or: Moralism, Politics and Knowledge in the Neoliberal Era

Dear Participant,
Here is an introduction to our five text-seminars:

Arvet från Hegel och Nietzsche

Två av de underteman vi kommer ta upp under den övergripande inriktningen mot etik
handlar dels om spänningsfältet mellan sårbarhet och affirmation inom feministisk
teori och dels om frågan om det förtryckta subjektets moraliska status och dess
förhållande till den intellektuella som bedriver kritisk forskning. Båda dessa
problemområden har i sina rötter i tysk 1800-tals filosofi och mer precist i texter av
Hegel och Nietzsche, som bland annat har inspirerat tänkare som Braidotti och Butler.
Syftet med det här textseminariet är att studera originaltexter av Hegel och Nietzsche
för att därigenom få en historisk fond till samtida diskussioner inom feministisk teori.
Texterna vi läser är herre-slavdialektiken i Hegels Andens fenomenologi, med ett
utdrag ur Victoria Farelds avhandling om Hegel som bredvidläsning, samt inledningen
och första essän i Nietzsches Till moralens genealogi.

Litteratur:
Hegel, ”Herravälde och slaveri” i Hegel, Andens fenomenologi, (Stockholm 2008)
Nietzsche, ”Till moralens genealogi” i Nietzsche, Samlade skrifter. Bd 7, Bortom gott och
ont: förspel till en framtidens filosofi ; Till moralens genealogi : en stridsskrift, B. ( Eslöv
2002)

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Fareld, ”Hegel som spänningsfält” i Fareld, Att vara utom sig inom sig: Charles Taylor,
erkännandet och Hegels aktualitet, [Ny utg.], (Göteborg 2008)

The Other
A discussion of the concept of ”the Other” in Levinas respectively postcolonial theory.

Literature:
Drichel,”Face to Face with the Other Other: Levinas versus the Postcolonial”, i Levinas
Studies, Vol.7, pp.21-42, (2012)

Between vulnerability and empowerment

The so-called turn to ethics within the humanities and social sciences has included fruitful
discussions about different kinds of philosophical anthropology and/or social ontology on
which to base ethico-political theories or projects. As a part of this development the concept
of vulnerability has received increased attention as a possible ground for ethical
responsiveness, and collective action. A known advocate of the vulnerability approach is
philosopher Judith Butler, inspired by Emmanuel Levinas about the subject’s a priori relation
to and responsibility for the Other on the one hand and Jacques Lacan’s Hegelian idea of the
split subject on the other. Desire in this vulnerability approach is regarded as being
constituted by lack and thus easily exploited by different identificatory mobilizations.
Feminist philosopher Rosi Braidotti however, has advocated a Spinozist-Deleuzian vitalist
approach in opposition to the emphasis on vulnerability. Braidotti’s Deleuzian inspired
“nomadic ethics” strives to live through yet beyond pain and to turn negative passions into
affirmative and empowering activity. Braidotti emphasizes post-anthropocentric becoming
and desire as positive and part of the beings persistence in being (conatus). Philosophers and
cultural scholars who work within the continental tradition are somewhat divided in this
regard. What are the ethical and political implications of these different kinds of social
ontologies? What are the political stakes in these different notions of ethics, subjectivity and
desire? How do these different perspectives affect the way in which we do research? Critique?

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Literature:
Braidotti, ”Affirmation, Pain and Empowerment” (2008)
Culbertson, ”The Ethics of Relationality: Judith Butler and Social Critique” (2013)
Butler, ”Rethinking Vulnerability and Resistance” (2014)

The Intellectual and the Underdog

This seminar will be dedicated to the question of the moral status of the oppressed, the
relationship between subjectivity and knowledge and the role and the responsibility of the
intellectual who does research on oppressed groups. These are recurring problems for anyone
interested in producing critical knowledge and they gain new relevance in a context of
neoliberalism and the post political era.
The seminar is a joint venture with circle 6, coordinated by Johan Söderberg and
Sverker Lundin, who both have sociological perspectives on these issues. The structure is
informal, with brief presentations of 5-10 minutes by anyone who wants to make a standpoint,
followed by a joint discussion. Johan Söderberg just published a short text about the debate
between sociologists Howard Becker and Alvin Gouldner, which is recommended reading
(for those who understand Swedish):
http://tidskriftenrespons.se/article/4078/

Feminist readings of ancient philosophy

In this symposium, we will direct our focus on feminist readings of ancient philosophy,
departing from Plato’s Symposium: How do we read ancient philosophical texts and how has
feminist philosophers emphasized different feminist readings? These initial questions involve
conceptions of time and history and conceptions of the relation between feminism and
philosophy. Feminist readings of ancient philosophy have contributed to contemporary
ethical, political and moral-psychological discussions with a particular focus on conceptions
of knowledge, emotions, senses, reason and desire. These concepts are of central concern in
Plato’s Symposium where feminist interpretations have given a special attention to Diotima’s
speech. Thus, the interpretations of Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray, Vigdis Songe-Møller,

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Martha Nussbaum and Andrea Nye show the diversity of feminist philosophy and open up for
discussions on the politics of interpretation.
The history of philosophy has been explored from various feminist perspectives,
without agreement on an interpretation of feminism. Some of these texts emphasize the
exclusion of women from philosophy as a discipline, or seek an understanding of women’s
historical subordination in the denigration of women or the feminine in historical texts. As
Julie Ward (1996) and Genevieve Lloyd (2002) has argued, this focus on a less enlightened
past tend to construct or reproduce an idea of feminism as progression where contemporary
problems can be explained and altered from mistaken pasts. However, this problematization
of time and history has also opened up for new self-reflective reading-strategies within the
history of philosophy where feminist engagement has contributed to the ”transformation of
history of philosophy as a scholarly activity” (Lloyd, 2002). Without necessarily arguing from
feminist perspectives, feminist reading-strategies can be discerned in contemporary
philosophy in the work of Luce Irigaray, Julia Annas, Martha Nussbaum and Nancy Sherman
among others.

Literature:
Platon, Gästabudet i Platon, Skrifter Bok 1, (Stockholm 2000) / Plato, Symposium
Irigaray, ”Sorcerer Love: A Reading of Plato’s Symposium, Diotima’s Speech”(1984/1989)
Colebrook, ”Feminist Philosophy and the Philosophy of Feminism: Irigaray and the History
of Western Metaphysics” (1997)