Apr 27/28 – Blog #19
The Feminist Challenge attempts to outline a more informed description of what “feminist ethics” entails. It does good in comparing itself to more conventional forms of ethics. It contradicts the stigma that women are morally inferior men and does so with convincing satisfaction.
Feminist ethics places a heavy emphasis on moral issues surrounding close personal relationships. Specifically, compassion, faithfulness, kindness, and love; it is a soft form of ethics that is less involved in legalistic moral matters. It seeks to question pre-existing moral principles and establish new ones in accordance with their beliefs. “..The cornerstones of the ethics of care are not rules but feelings.” Feminist ethics aims to achieve their goals with a more sensible approach rather than one dictated by various laws pre-held rules of ethics. In this way, it separates itself from any other kind of ethics.
Impartiality is another important aspect of feminine ethics, as it understands that as humans we are naturally partial towards different people. Meaning we would not treat our mother the same way we would treat a stranger on the sidewalk. This is taken into account when making moral decisions by the laws of feminist ethics. One could argue that this same impartiality is required to make any choice by any standard of ethics. Although, in actuality partiality is largely present in society, in theory, we could make more educated, moral decisions by utilizing the laws of impartiality. It allows us to see everything on a level playing field and make more informed decisions.
This is an important concept, not only just in an ethical sense, but for developing a better world view. It allows us to view the world from an unbiased perspective, with an open-mind. Feminist ethics follows the same sort of ideologies. It aims to create a positive environment in society free of prejudice and disagreement. It attempts to solve any ethical dilemmas in the most civil way possible, which is a very important path of ethics required in this world. When comparing conventional ethics(Kant, Mill) against feminist ethics there are clear distinctions between the two, but also a number of similarities. It is crucial that both are taken into account when attempting to make a moral decision. This along with a feminine-motivated worldview is an essential element for developing a strong sense of ethics.
See The Feminist Challenge for more.
Sources: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-ethics/
395 words.
Mind of Lucca 