Feminist political philosophy does have its favourite topics – which include gender justice, the politicization of the seemingly private or the debates on pornography or abortion, among others. But the feminist political philosophy cannot be defined by these topics, for it aims at a different kind of political philosophy by incorporating questions concerning the oppression of women because of their gender into its methods of inquiry. The resulting theories are in deliberate tension to a traditional, value-free or neutral idea of science, thus requiring additional reflexivity. By reading classic texts of feminist political philosophy, the seminar intends to analyse both the substantial topics as well as the methodological implications embedded in feminist interventions in political theory. For above all, feminist political philosophy is a politicization of theory.
Preparatory Reading
Beauvoir, Simone de (1999 [1949]): Das andere Geschlecht. Sitte und Sexus der Frau. Übersetzt von Uli Aumüller und Grete Osterwald. Reinbek: Rowohlt.
Becker-Schmidt, Regina/Knapp, Gudrun-Axeli (2011): Feministische Theorien zur Einführung. 5., erg. Aufl. Hamburg: Junius.
Butler, Judith und Joan W. Scott (Hrsg.) (1992): Feminists theorize the political. New York/London: Routledge.
Haraway, Donna 1988: Situated Knowledges. The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective, in: Feminist Studies 14. 3, S. 575-599.
Nagl-Docekal, Herta (2010): Feministische Philosophie. In: Becker, Ruth/Kortendiek, Beate (Hrsg.): Handbuch Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, S. 302–311.
Rössler, Beate (1996): Feministische Theorien der Politik, in: Klaus von Beyme und Claus Offe (Hrsg.): Politische Theorien in der Ära der Transformation. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 267–291.