Asymmetrical Reciprocity and Practical Agency: Contemporary Dilemmas of Feminist Theory in Benhabib, Young, and Kristeva

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

This essay presses the need for developing a richer phenomenological description within feminist theory of the process whereby two different persons realize reciprocal recognition. A phenomenological examination of the implicit yet differing ontological assumptions that Benhabib and Young hold, reveals how both the dimensions of symmetry and asymmetry must operate in order to develop the expanded consciousness and affective empathy requisite to recognize another as a three-dimensional moral agent. Implicit in this process, I suggest, is a constructive rather than projective use of imagination. Relying on Kristeva, I sketch a picture of how imagination plays with both dimensions of sameness and difference in communicative interaction. That interplay may catalyze a genuine awakening to the irreducible realities of difference without projecting distorting stereotypes onto other social groups.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationContributions To Phenomenology
PublisherSpringer Nature
Pages353-378
Number of pages26
DOIs
StatePublished - 2016

Publication series

NameContributions To Phenomenology
Volume84
ISSN (Print)0923-9545
ISSN (Electronic)2215-1915

Keywords

  • Formal Equality
  • Moral Agent
  • Moral Judgment
  • Regulative Ideal
  • Subject Position

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Philosophy
  • History and Philosophy of Science

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