Feminists Read Habermas: Gendering the Subject of Discourse (Thinking Gender)

This collection considers Jurgen Habermas's discourse theory from a variety of feminist vantage points. Habermas's theory represents one of the most persuasive current formulations of moral and political notions of subjectivity and normativity. Feminist scholars have been drawn to his work because it reflects a tradition of emancipatory political thinking rooted in the Enlightenment and engages with the normative aims of emancipatory social movements. Thinking Gender Feminists Read Habermas: Gendering the Subject of Discourse Contents Acknowledgments A Note on the Text Introduction Habermas’s Argument Synopses of the Articles Identity and Difference NOTES What’s Critical about Critical Theory? Nancy Fraser The Social-Theoretical Framework: A Feminist Interrogation Public and Private in Classical Capitalism: Thematizing the Gender Subtext The Dynamics of Welfare-State Capitalism: A Feminist Critique Concluding Remarks 2 Critical Social Theory and Feminist Critiques: The Debate with Jurgen Habermas Jean L. Cohen A Feminist Critique of Dualistic Social Theory Dual Politics: The Example of the Feminist Movement The Public and the Private Sphere: A Feminist Reconsideration Joan B. Landes The Public Sphere as a Category of Bourgeois Society: Defense of Modernity? One Public or Many? Where are the Women? Subjects, Actors, and Spectators Whose Opinion? Print and Other Media: On the Multiple Forms of Representation Prospects for a Democratic Public Sphere 4 Women and the “Public Use of Reason” Marie Fleming Genesis of the "Public Use of Reason” The Contradictory Institutionalization of the Public Sphere The Gender Basis of the Model of the Contradictory Institutionalization of the Public Sphere Concluding Remarks From Communicative Rationality to Communicative Thinking: A Basis for Feminist Theory and Practice Jane Braaten Communicative Rationality, Autonomy, and Community Reason and Community Feminist Solidarity and Communicative Thinking Feminist Discourse/Practical Discourse Simone Chambers A Discursive Experiment Discursive Attitudes and Sentiments Consensus and Pluralism Efficiency Public Opinion Formation The Debate over Women and Moral Theory Revisited Seyla Benhabib Universalist Moral Philosophies and Carol Gilligan’s Challenge Gender and Difference in the Gilligan Debate 8 Discourse in Different Voices Jodi Dean The Different Voice The Observer Perspective and Moral Development A Different View: Looking Behind the Neutral Observer Mutual Recognition: Looking Beyond the Generalized Other Autonomy, Recognition, and Respect: Habermas, Benjamin, and Honneth Johanna Meehan Benjamin’s Argument Habermas 10 Discourse Ethics and Feminist Dilemmas of Difference Georgia Warnke Habermas’s Discourse Ethics Aesthetic Change 11 Toward a Model of Self-Identity: Habermas and Kristeva Allison Weir Toward a Developmental Theory of Self-Identity Habermas Kristeva NOTES Index Contributors This important new collection considers Jürgen Habermas’s discourse theory from a variety of feminist vantage points. Habermas’s theory represents one of the most persuasive current formulations of moral and political notions of subjectivity and normativity. Feminist scholars have been drawn to his work because it reflects a tradition of emancipatory political thinking rooted in the Enlightenment and engages with the normative aims of emancipatory social movements. The essays in Feminists Read Habermas analyze various aspects of Habermas’s theory, ranging from his moral theory to political issues of identity and participation. While the contributors hold widely different political and philosophical views, they share a conviction of the potential significance of Habermas’s work for feminist reflections on power, norms and subjectivity. (Source: [Routledge](https://www.routledge.com/Feminists-Read-Habermas-RLE-Feminist-Theory-Gendering-the-Subject-of/Meehan/p/book/9780415754163)) Acknowledgements A note on the text Introduction What’s Critical About Critical Theory? Nancy Fraser Critical Social Theory and Feminist Critiques: The Debate with Jurgen Habermas, Jean L. Cohen The Public and the Private Sphere, Joan B. Landes Women and the ‘Public Use of Reason’, Marie Fleming From Communicative Rationality to Communicative Thinking: A Basis for Feminist Theory and Practice, Jane Braaten Feminist Discourse/Practical Discourse, Simone Chambers The Debate Over Women and Moral Theory Revisited, Seyla Benhabib Discourse in Different Voices, Jodi Dean Autonomy, Recognition and Respect: Habermas, Benjamin and Honneth, Johanna Meehan Discourse Ethics and Feminist Dilemmas of Difference, Georgia Warnke Toward a Model of Self-Identity: Habermas and Kristeva, Allison Weir Index Contributors This impressive collection of essays analyses the various aspects of Habermas' theory, from his moral theory to political issues of identity and participation, and explore his signficance for feminist reflections on power and subjectivity.