1st Edition

Situating the Self Gender, Community, and Postmodernism in Contemporary Ethics

By Seyla Benhabib Copyright 1992

    This book is an attempt to defend the tradition of universalism in the face of a triple-pronged critique by engaging with the claims of feminism, communitarianism, and postmodernism and by learning from them. It situates reason and the moral self more decisively in contexts of gender and community.

    Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Communicative Ethics and the Claims of Gender, Community and Postmodernism -- PART I Modernity, Morality and Ethical Life -- 1 In the Shadow of Aristotle and Hegel Communicative Ethics and Current Controversies in Practical Philosophy -- 2 Autonomy, Modernity and Community Communitarianism and Critical Social Theory in Dialogue -- 3 Models of Public Space Hannah Arendt, the Liberal Tradition and Jurgen Habermas -- 4 Judgment and the Moral Foundations of Politics in Hannah Arendt's Thought -- PART II Autonomy, Feminism and Postmodernism -- 5 The Generalized and the Concrete Other The Kohlberg-Gilligan Controversy and Moral Theory -- 6 The Debate over Women and Moral Theory Revisited -- 7 Feminism and the Question of Postmodernism -- 8 On Hegel, Women and Irony -- Index.

    Biography

    Seyla Benhabib has authored Critique, Norm, and Utopia, and is Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at the New School for Social Research.