A Feminist Perspective on Kant in the Context of Social Irrationality

Abstract

A feminist reading of Kant faces several different problems, although Carol Hay's account gives a stimulating example. Outlining the harms of oppression as a denial of equal liberty in the tradition of John Stuart Mill, it will be pointed out how Kant's thinking can support the idea that there is a feminist goal of counteracting oppression and how Kant's anthropological writings in particular serve –heterogeneous in nature – as a reminder of women's potential rational qualities, whereas on the other hand the task of “preserving the species” binds women to ensuring the persistence of the natural order. That, in the matrimonial union, one partner must “yield to the other” leads to a claim of superiority that seems outdated – inequality, today, cannot be seen as equality anymore – it clashes with the demand that we should think for ourselves using our rational capacities. In this vein two feminist objections are raised: Kant is privileging the rational over the animal and the rational over the emotional. In further discussion the question arises if Kant's work can be neutralized or if he is to be read in a way not disguising his strictness. Finally social irrationality is thematized: distraction from the goal of rationality can be perceived as utterly human.