Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996
Synopsis The aim of the subject is to provide an introduction to the historical development of feminist thought and to issues in contemporary feminist philosophy. It deals with philosophical problems arising from conceptions of sexual equality and difference and their implications for norms of rationality and morality, focusing particularly on the work of pioneer feminist philosophers, Mary Wollstonecraft and Simone de Beauvoir and the work of contemporary theorists such as Luce Irigaray and Catherine MacKinnon. Their philosophies are discussed in the context of the intellectual currents of their times and will be used to introduce such topics as the influence of liberalism, socialism, psychoanalysis and postmodernism on feminist thought, questions relating to sexual equality and sexual difference, the public and the private, conceptual connections between reason and masculinity, and the implications of sexual difference for moral theory and epistemology.
Assessment Two essays (2500 words each): 40% each + Examinations (1 hour): 20% + Optional replacement of one essay by a 2-hour examination: 40%