1. Lecture 23: Existentialism and Feminism

2. Existentialism

3. Sartre Jean-Paul Sartre Lived 1905-1980 in Paris, France
One of the most famous and influential philosophers of the 20th Century
Famous for his philosophy of Existentialism
Sartre was a P.O.W. in WWII
Used literature, plays, and academic works to express his philosophical views
Immensely concerned with a subjective inquiry into freedom
Sartre

4. Endorsed a philosophy of phenomenology
Søren Kierkegaard
Lived
Considered to be the father of existentialism
Was interested in investigating the relationship between freedom, the individual, society and Christianity
Used a literary method
Edmund Husserl
Lived
Endorsed a philosophy of phenomenology
Martin Heidegger
Lived
Taught by Husserl
Interested in phenomenology and the relationship between the individual, society and freedom
Investigated the key question: what is a human being?
Sartre’s Influences

5. Sartre Traditional philosophical investigations
So far our philosophical investigations have attempted to be objective
We take an entirely Third-Person approach to investigating the world
We attempts to appeal to objective facts about our world
We make reference to objective features of human beings
Many arguments surround how we should interpret these objective features
For example:
The world is entirely composed of physical substance
Humans are rational beings
There is a universal moral law
Humans are bound by the laws of nature
Knowledge is gained through experience
Sartre

6. Phenomenology
Phenomenology attempts to investigate the world subjectively
Takes a First-Person approach to the world
Phenomenology is concerned with the phenomena of human experience
It investigates the appearance of human consciousness and experience
It is primarily interested in the subjective features of the human world
Often challenges the motivation behind a theory rather than the theory itself
For example:
It feels like we are free, that we have choices, we make decisions and these decisions matter
What does this feeling of freedom feel like?
Why should we deny that this feeling is true?
What motivates people to deny this feeling?
Sartre

7. Existentialism is primarily interested in the following:
The question of existence
What is it to exist? (what is it to live?)
Questions about human existence
Who am I? What am I? How should I live my life? What is the purpose of human existence? Why should we do anything? How do I become who I am?
Questions about human psychology (phenomenology)
What does it feel like to be a human? Why do people do the things they do? Why are people afraid of freedom? Why do people commit suicide?
Questions about human society/culture/religion
If God exists or does not exist, then what? What is it to be an x? (Christian, member of society, musician, policeman etc.) To what degree am I free within my society?
Existentialism covers a diverse variety of thinkers, film makers, writers, philosophers, scientists, psychologists and more!
Existentialism

8. Sartre’s Existentialism
Sartre’s existentialism is based on two important themes:
The non-existence of God
Sartre founds his existentialism on the principle that there is no God
This is simply a fact about our world
No matter how terrifying this idea may be, we must accept it
This means that humans are alone in the world
There is nothing more to human existence than what humans create
Sartre was interested in exploring the consequences of this fact on human experience
Sartre’s Existentialism

9. Sartre’s Existentialism
Sartre’s existentialism is based on two important themes:
2. For humans, Existence Precedes Essence
Because there is no God, humans are free to define their own existence
Essence precedes existence (Being in itself)
Essence existence
Cut food knife
Count time watch
Write things pen
Run programs laptop
Existence precedes essence (Being for itself)
Existence Essence
Human being ?
Sartre’s Existentialism

10. Sartre’s Existentialism
Because there is no God and human existence precedes essence
Sartre claims that humans are Radically (unconditionally) Free
Which means:
We are completely (unconditionally) free
There are no limits or restrictions on our freedom
Everything we have done, are doing, will do was a free personal choice
No one or no thing can force us or make us do something we don’t want to do
We are completely free to define ourselves and our lives however we choose
We must each find our own meaning and purpose to our lives
Nothing can make our decisions for us
You are free, therefore choose, that is to say, invent.
(Jean-Paul Sartre)
No rule of general morality can show you what you ought to do: no signs are vouchsafed in this world.
Sartre’s Existentialism

11. Sartre’s Existentialism
Traditional ethical theories
Traditional ethical theories depend on the idea that essence precedes existence
For Example:
Essence existence
But if existence precedes essence...
Essence Existence
? Human being Moral values
Ten-commandments
Virtue
Categorical Imperative
Do not steal
Courage
Goods in themselves
God
The Forms
Human reason
Sartre’s Existentialism

12. Sartre’s Existentialism
Existential criticisms of ethics
There is nothing in existence outside, above, or beyond the individual (God is dead)
Therefore there are no transcendent, objective or eternal values
Mankind is alone in the universe and “condemned to be free” (p.359)
This unconditional freedom means that there are no moral laws that we must obey
For example;
I can choose to be rational
The ten commandments only have authority if I choose so
Sartre’s Existentialism

13. Sartre’s Existentialism
Existential ethics
Existentialism is not a form of relativism
The individual alone is the source of all value and meaning in the universe
Every human qua individual has certain responsibilities
We are responsible for ourselves
We are responsible to humanity itself
We must see ourselves as exemplars and imagine if everyone acted as we do
I am responsible for myself and for everyone else. I am creating a certain image of man of my own choosing. In choosing myself, I choose man... Certainly, many people believe that when they do something, they themselves are the only ones involved, and when someone says to them “what if everyone acted that way?” They shrug their shoulders and answer, “Everyone doesn’t act that way.” But really, one should always ask himself, “What would happen if everybody looked at things that way?” There is no escaping this disturbing thought except by a kind of double-dealing. A man who lies and makes excuses for himself by saying “not everybody does that,” is someone with an uneasy conscience because the act of lying implies that a universal value is conferred upon the lie.
Jean-Paul Sartre
Sartre’s Existentialism

14. Feminist Criticisms of Traditional Ethical Theories

15. Feminism and Ethics Key questions for feminism
Is traditional Western Ethics inappropriate for women?
Is it biased towards the male perspective?
Does it ignore the insights and experience of female experience?
Does it fail to take advantage of the female perspective?
Can the female perspective provide insights into moral life which have been traditionally ignored?
Has the male centred ethical tradition contributed to creating bias and oppression towards women?
Feminism and Ethics

16. Feminism and Ethics Some perspectives on women:
Women have a lower developed moral sense than men
Lawrence Kohlberg
Women remain children their whole life long… the fundamental fault of the female character is that it has no sense of justice. This is mainly due to the fact that women are defective in the powers of reasoning and deliberation.
Arthur Schopenhaur
Feminism and Ethics

17. Feminism and Ethics Some more perspectives on women:
A woman cannot grasp that one must act from principle; as she has no continuity, she does not experience the necessity for logical support of her mental processes.
Otto Weininger
Women show “[…]less sense of justice than men, that they are less ready to submit to the great exigencies of life, that they are more often influence in their judgments by their feelings of affection or hostility”
Sigmund Freud
Feminism and Ethics

18. Feminism and Ethics Kohlberg’s 1960 gender experiments
Two Children are confronted with a moral dilemma:
Should ‘Heinz’ steal medicine from a pharmacist to save his wife’s life?
Amy’s solution
Claims that heinz should not steal medicine and pharmacist is also in the wrong
Derives no principles
Does not deduce logical conclusions
Jake’s solution
Claims that Heinz should steal medicine
Derives a principle
“Life is worth more than money”
Deduces a logical argument applying the principles
Feminism and Ethics

19. Feminism and Ethics Interpretations of the experiment:
Kohlberg’s interpretation
These results show that women have a lower developed moral sense than men
Women are incapable of understanding the abstract concept of justice
They are incapable of applying principles and drawing logical conclusions from it
Carol Gilligan’s interpretation (1982)
Disagrees with Kohlberg; Amy has a different moral insight into the situation
Amy refuses to apply abstract principles in a mathematical way
Refuses to use unrealistic scenarios to resolve real life problems
Instead, she contextualizes and looks at the problem pragmatically
Focuses on the relationships between human beings
Feminism and Ethics

20. Feminism and Ethics The problem for ethics
Feminists maintain the following:
Women may have special insights into human relations
Some feminists praise Amy’s rejection of the extreme-case scenarios philosophers often use
They praise her rejection of rules and her emphasis on relationships
They claim that Amy is right to ask for more information regarding context
They agree that moral judgements are emergent and based on real situations
Women may have a unique perspective from which to criticize male-dominated ethical theory
Traditional ethics fails to recognize this important insight into morality
Feminism and Ethics

21. Feminism and Ethics The aim of feminist ethics:
Feminist ethics identifies and challenges the ways in which western ethics has excluded or rationalized the subordination of women
Has a masculine tendency towards abstract thought allowed ethical theories to be distanced from actual human life?
Does this lead to a distortion of human priorities?
E.g. Ethically supported militarism; the value of human life etc.
Are women in a better position to criticize the morality of our society, in virtue of their exclusion?
Feminism and Ethics

22. Feminism and Ethics The aim of feminist ethics:
2. The development of a feminist ethics (in 7 tenets)
The central priority of ethics is not the concept of individual rights but of relationships with other human beings.
The principle goal of ethics is not to respect and maximize autonomy and liberty of individual humans; but giving and receiving care appropriate to specific people and situations
Interdependence over individualism
The “other” with whom one deals with morally must be distinctly personified and not an impersonal faceless abstraction
Moral judgments emerge from actual situations and are not derived by applying logical formulas to general principles
Feminist ethics are accepting not transformative
Feminist ethics will be a morality of virtues rather than justice
Feminism and Ethics

23. Feminism and Ethics Some key features of feminist philosophy:
Feminists such as Gilligan seem to agree that there is a difference between masculine and feminine perspectives on morality
They deny that this difference means differences in quality and equality
Crucially, men and women are both capable of masculine and feminist thinking
Feminist philosophy involves a way of interpreting and viewing the world; it is not just how female humans view the world
Feminism and Ethics