Hypatia articles from March 2001

Hypatia archives from March 2001

On the lap of necessity: a mythic reading of Teresa Brennan's energetics philosophy.
March 22, 2001... In several works Teresa Brennan examines how, contrary to social notions of the separate and contained self, all that exists in the natural world is connected energetically. She identifies a "foundational fantasy" whereby the ego comes into...

Ecstatic Subjects, Utopia, and Recognition: Kristeva, Heidegger, Irigaray.
March 22, 2001... Ecstatic Subjects, Utopia, and Recognition: Kristeva, Heidegger, Irigaray. By PATRICIA J. HUNTINGTON. New York: SUNY Press, 1998. There has never been a natural alliance between Martin Heidegger and feminism, especially given what Patricia...

The Descent of Women.
March 22, 2001... The Descent of Women. By FREDERICK SONTAG. St. Paul: Paragon Press, 1997. The Descent of Women is a wonderful reminder of how silly and slapdash some philosophers can get when they think they are obligated, or entitled, to hold forth about...

Performance and Transformation: New Approaches to Late Medieval Spirituality.
March 22, 2001... Performance and Transformation: New Approaches to Late Medieval Spirituality. Edited by MARY A. SUYDAM and JOANNA E. ZEIGLER. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999. These essays look at "mystics as performers, actors, and dancers--in short,...

Feminism and Ecological Communities: An Ethic of Flourishing.
March 22, 2001... Feminism and Ecological Communities: An Ethic of Flourishing. By CHRIS J. CUOMO. London and New York: Routledge, 1998. Ecofeminist Natures: Race, Gender, Feminist Theory and Political Action. By NOEL STURGEON. London and New York:...

Constituting Feminist Subjects.
March 22, 2001... Constituting Feminist Subjects. By KATHI WEEKS. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998. The need to re-think notions of selfhood and agency became a fundamental element of feminist theory in the late twentieth century, and since we have...

Rousseau's other woman: Collette in Le devin du village.
March 22, 2001... The life and work of Rousseau the musician and aesthetician has been largely neglected in the debate about Rousseau's views on women. In this paper, I shall introduce a new text and a new female figure into the conversation: Collette, the...

Rape as an essentially contested concept.
March 22, 2001... Because "rape" has such a powerful appraisive meaning, how one defines the term has normative significance. Those who define rape rigidly so as to exclude contemporary feminist understandings are therefore seeking to silence some moral...

Thinking about the plurality of genders.(AUTHOR GREETS CRITICS)
March 22, 2001... Linda Nicholson argues that because gender is socially constructed, feminist theorizing must be about an expansive multiplicity of subjects called "woman" that bear a family resemblance to each other. But why did feminism expand its category of...

The lines of reason.(AUTHOR GREETS CRITICS)
March 22, 2001... Linda Nicholson's book The Play of Reason: From the Modern to the Postmodern admirably integrates history and philosophy to demonstrate the historical characteristics of reason and arguments in its name. I argue that she nonetheless retains a...

Linda Nicholson's The Play of Reason: From the Modern to the Postmodern.(AUTHOR GREETS CRITICS)
March 22, 2001... Nicholson's political philosophy is distinctively grounded in history. The Play of Reason: From the Modern to the Postmodern argues that such "grounding" plays as much of the foundational role demanded of philosophy as can coherently be played...

A response to my "critics".(AUTHOR GREETS CRITICS)
March 22, 2001... This essay is a response to comments made by Shane Phelan, Cheshire Calhoun, and Naomi Scheman on my book The Play of Reason: From the Modern to the Postmodern (1999). I reiterate my belief that we best approach the issue of consensus and...

Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice.
March 22, 2001... Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice. By PATRICIA HILL COLLINS. University of Minnesota, 1998. Patricia Hill Collins's earlier book, Black Feminist Thought (1990), developed a sophisticated and persuasive version of...

Violence Against Women: Philosophical Perspectives.
March 22, 2001... Violence Against Women: Philosophical Perspectives. Edited by STANLEY G. FRENCH, WANDA TEAYS, and LAURA M. PURDY. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1998. This diverse and wide-ranging collection of essays begins with a discussion of...

The Madwoman's Reason: The Concept of the Appropriate in Ethical Thought.
March 22, 2001... The Madwoman's Reason: The Concept of the Appropriate in Ethical Thought. By NANCY J. HOLLAND. University Park: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998. The ethical consequences of Martin Heidegger's philosophy have become one of the most...

On the Lap of Necessity: A Mythic Reading of Teresa Brennan's Energetics Philosophy.
March 22, 2001... In several works Teresa Brennan examines how, contrary to social notions of the separate and contained self, all that exists in the natural world is connected energetically. She identifies a "foundational fantasy" whereby the ego comes into...

Rousseau's Other Woman: Collette in Le devin du village.
March 22, 2001... The life and work of Rousseau the musician and aesthetician has been Largely neglected in the debate about Rousseau's views on women. In this paper, I shall introduce a new text and a new female figure into the conversation: Collette, the...

Rape as an Essentially Contested Concept.
March 22, 2001... Because "rape" has such a powerful appraisive meaning, how one defines the term has normative significance. Those who define rape rigidly so as to exclude contemporary feminist understandings are therefore seeking to silence some moral...

Thinking about the Plurality of Genders.
March 22, 2001... Linda Nicholson argues that because gender is socially constructed, feminist theorizing must be about an expansive multiplicity of subjects called "woman" that bear a family resemblance to each other. But why did feminism expand its category of...

The Lines of Reason.(Review)
March 22, 2001... Linda Nicholson's book The Play of Reason: From the Modern to the Postmodern admirably integrates history and philosophy to demonstrate the historical characteristics of reason and arguments in its name. I argue that she nonetheless retains a...

Linda Nicholson's The Play of Reason: From the Modern to the Postmodern.(Review)
March 22, 2001... Nicholson's political philosophy is distinctively grounded in history. The Play of Reason: From the Modern to the Postmodern argues that such "grounding" plays as much of the foundational role demanded of philosophy as can coherently be played...

A Response to My "Critics".
March 22, 2001... This essay is a response to comments made by Shane Phelan, Cheshire Calhoun, and Naomi Scheman on my book The Play of Reason: From the Modern to the Postmodern (1999). I reiterate my belief that we best approach the issue of consensus and...

Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice.(Review)
March 22, 2001... By PATRICIA HILL COLLINS. University of Minnesota, 1998. Patricia Hill Collins's earlier book, Black Feminist Thought (1990), developed a sophisticated and persuasive version of feminist standpoint theory that conceptualized the specific...

Violence Against Women: Philosophical Perspectives.(Review)
March 22, 2001... Edited by STANLEY G. FRENCH, WANDA TEAYS, and LAURA M. PURDY, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1998. This diverse and wide-ranging collection of essays begins with a discussion of the complexity of surviving rape and ends with a...

The Madwoman's Reason: The Concept of the Appropriate in Ethical Thought.(Review)
March 22, 2001... NANCY J. HOLLAND University Park: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998. The ethical consequences of Martin Heidegger's philosophy have become one of the most debated topics among scholars of Heidegger's work. Most philosophers who...

Ecstatic Subjects, Utopia, and Recognition: Kristeva, Heidegger, Irigaray.(Review)
March 22, 2001... PATRICIA J. HUNTINGTON. New York: SUNY Press, 1998. There has never been a natural alliance between Martin Heidegger and feminism, especially given what Patricia Huntington calls Heidegger's "powerful embrace of the masculine ethos" of...

The Descent of Women.(Review)
March 22, 2001... FREDERICK SONTAG St. Paul: Paragon Press, 1997. The Descent of Women is a wonderful reminder of how silly and slapdash some philosophers can get when they think they are obligated, or entitled, to hold forth about the battle of the...

Performance and Transformation: New Approaches to Late Medieval Spirituality.(Review)
March 22, 2001... Edited by MARY A. SUYDAM and JOANNA E. ZEIGLER. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999. These essays look at "mystics as performers, actors, and dancers--in short, as artists who performed their mysticism" (xiii). The collection is part of an...

Feminism and Ecological Communities: An Ethic of Flourishing.(Review)
March 22, 2001... By CHRIS J. CUOMO. London and New York: Routledge, 1998. Ecofeminist Natures: Race, Gender, Feminist Theory and Political Action. By NOEL STURGEON. London and New York: Routledge, 1997. Two books, one review--a procedural dilemma...

Constituting Feminist Subjects.(Review)
March 22, 2001... By KATHI WEEKS. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998. The need to re-think notions of selfhood and agency became a fundamental element of feminist theory in the late twentieth century, and since we have not resolved most of the bothersome...