Author Description

In this ground-breaking and comprehensive study, the distinguished philosopher Andrea Nye considers the powerful impact that feminist theory is beginning to have upon a vast range of philosophical inquiry. Nye offers an engaging introduction to the history of feminist philosophy, from Mary Wollstonecraft to Sojourner Truth, and from Simone de Beauvoir to feminist theorists of the 1970s. In complex and lucid prose, Nye then moves methodically through the major contemporary fields in philosophy - logic, ethics, epistemology, philosophy of language, and political theory - in order to demonstrate the ways in which contemporary feminist thought is challenging basic presuppositions in each of these fields. In every case, she offers fair and articulate summaries of the major debates for and against incorporating feminist perspectives in mainstream philosophy, while presenting compelling arguments for her own vision of the crucial role that feminist philosophy should play in transforming her discipline. Drawing upon the work of both mainstream and feminist philosophers, such as Nancy Fraser and Sandra Harding, as well as feminist scholars working in other disciplines, such as sociology, psychoanalysis, linguistics, and literary theory, Nye's volume is a model of both rigorous philosophical inquiry and interdisciplinary feminist study. Substantive, original, and eminently readable, this book will interest not only students and teachers of philosophy; it also offers a philosophical framework for scholars in literature, sociology, history, and women's studies, as well as anyone engaged in the exciting new fields of interdisciplinary feminist inquiry.