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1. The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 20
Pamela Anderson

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A reading of Luce Irigaray suggests the possibility of tracing sexual difference in philosophical accounts of personal identity. In particular, I argue that Irigaray raises the possibility of moving beyond the aporia of the other which lies at the heart of Paul Ricoeur's account of self-identity. My contention is that the self conceived in Ricoeur's Oneself as Another is male insofar as it is dependent upon the patriarchal monotheism which has shaped Western culture both socially and economically. Nevertheless there remains the possibility of developing Ricoeur's reference to 'the trace of the Other' in order to give a non-essential meaning to sexual difference. Such meaning will emerge when (i) both men and women have identities as subjects, and (ii) the difference between them can be expressed. I aim to elucidate both conditions by appropriating Irigaray's 'Questions to Emmanuel Levinas: On the Divinity of Love.'

2. The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 20
W. A. Borody

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In his writings during the 60s and 70s, Derrida situates his doctrine of différance in the context of a radical critique of the Western philosophical tradition. This critique rests on a scathing criticism of the tradition as logocentric/phallogocentric. Often speaking in a postured, Übermenschean manner, Derrida claimed that his 'new' aporetic philosophy of différance would help bring about the clôture of the Western legacy of logocentrism and phallogocentrism. Although in recent writings he appears to have settled into a more pietistic attitude towards the traditionally Judeo-Christian sense of the sacred and a stronger declamatory acknowledgment of his solidarity with the critical project of the Greek thinkers, many of his readers are still left with a sour taste in their mouths due to the denunciatory and self-ingratiating tone of his earlier writings. In this paper, I address these concerns, arguing that the earlier phallogocentric paradigm underlying Derrida's critique of classical Greek philosophical paideia can be troped as a postmodern, Franco-Euro form of 'Occidentalism'-a 'metanarrative' very similar in intent to the Orientalism critiqued by Said. In Derrida’s earlier writings, it is indeed very difficult to untangle this Occidental metanarrative from the aporetic metaphysics of différance.

3. The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 20
Guy Bouchard

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As Michel Foucault describes it, the homosexual paideia in classical Greece was an erotic bonding between a boy who had to learn how to become a man, and a mature man who paid court to him. In many of his dialogues, Plato plays with this scheme: he retains the erotic atmosphere, but he inverts and purifies the whole process in the name of virtue and wisdom. In the Republic, however, Socrates' pupil forsakes this model in favor of a bisexual education for the shepherds and shepherdesses of the State. Aristotle resolutely opposes this move. He thus reverts to a kind of homosexual paideia for the future citizens of his ideal state, but this choice fosters many unspoken problems.

4. The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 20
Elvira Burgos

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The starting point for the reflection carried out in this essay is part of Nietzsche's «Story of an Error», contained in Twilight of Idols. The essay will make use of other texts by the philosopher which also link Christianity and the woman, more specifically the contrast between the myth of Prometheus and that of the original sin, which he mentions in Birth of Tragedy. In a first reading, the essay discusses the criticism that relates both Chistianity and the woman, together with the philosophical implications suggested by such a relationship. In a second reading, it traces in Nietzsche a criticism of Christianity's tendency to use the woman and the feminine in a biased fashion. According to this second notion, which the essay posits as the richest and most interesting interpretation, Nietzsche's thought, in its denunciation of Christianity through the woman, foreshadows a new course for humankind which is neither essentialist nor inmutable.

5. The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 20
Maria da Penha, F. S. de Carvalho

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La Littérature constitue sans doute un champ fertile pour les recherches dans le domaine éthique. La description de circonstances vécues ayant trait à des situations de dilemme ou de choix de nature morale qui fait l'objet de plusieurs romans ou pièces théâtrales est une stimulante invitation à la réflexion morale. Ce travail aborde la pièce théatrale Maison de Poupée, d'Henrik Ibsen, dans le propos d'analyser quelques questions morales qui y apparaissent sous l'optique de la réflexion contemporaine sur les spécificités de genre, en particulier à la lumière des études de Carol Gilligan sur les implications des différences de genre dans le développement moral. Ayant esquissé brièvement le scénario qui guide la pièce dans la première section, dans les sections suivantes nous abordons trois dichotomies qui servent à montrer comment Ibsen saisit bien les spécificités de genre qui habitent certains choix de nature morale-le public et le privé; le masculin et le féminin; l'éthique du devoir et l'éthique de la sollicitude (ethics of care). La dernière section indique comment le développement moral de Nora, héroïne de la pièce, résume bien l'imbriquement des questions qui animent l'oeuvre.

6. The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 20
Rosalba Durán Forero

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El propósito de esta contribución es demostrar el aporte del pensamiento hobbesiano a la idea de la igualdad entre hombres y mujeres, y confrontarlo con el de su objetor B. Spinoza. En sus obras Elements of Law y De Cive, Thomas Hobbes va a cuestionar la autoridad patriarcal y la desigualdad entre hombres y mujeres como expresión de una ley de la naturaleza. Por el contrario, va hablar del carácter convencional de la sujeción de las mujeres y va a exponer que la familia funciona bajo la misma regla de operación de los Estados, mediante el pacto. Este aparte hobbesiano parece haber tenido poca resonancia entre los filósofos posteriores, pues el único que lo tuvo en cuenta para controvertirlo fue B. Spinoza. Spinoza combatió el punto de partida hobbesiano de que la desigualdad existente entre hombres y mujeres es producto de una convención o acuerdo. Pero, tal vez a su pesar convino que es la educación y la cultura los agentes de dicha diferenciación.

7. The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 20
Richard Gilmore

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I consider the revision of pragmatism by three leading neopragmatists: Richard Rorty, Richard Bernstein, and Cornel West. I argue that their vision of pragmatism lacks a teleology, though a teleology is suggested by Bernstein's description of a pragmatic ethos. I appeal to Stanley Cavell's notion of 'moral perfectionism' to suggest a kind of teleology that is available to pragmatism. Finally, I find the weakness of pragmatism done without teleology well exemplified in the exchange between Rorty and Nancy Frazer at Rorty's 1990 Tanner Lecture. Rorty's paper, "Pragmatism and Feminism," was meant to offer feminists some pragmatic strategies for improving their position. Frazer's strong response finds Rorty's suggestions only marginally helpful. I interpret her criticism of Rorty's suggestions to be that they lack something like a teleology. To me, this suggests that pragmatism can learn from feminism.

8. The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 20
Judit Hell

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In part one of this paper, I offer a description of the main versions of multiculturalism, with its liberal interpretation among them. In part two, I give an outline of the changes that have taken place in women's social status in the course of history and of the various stages of their emancipation process. In the third part I examine the relationship between multiculturalism and women's issues in general. Finally, I explore the same in Hungary, and attempt to draw some general consequences. Does a minority group (e.g., Gypsies in Hungary) in a multicultural society have the right to maintain their traditional patriarchal culture? I argue that the liberation of women is not a "women's issue"; it is part of the persistent enforcement of human rights.

9. The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 20
Krishna Mallick

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Feminists and cultural relativists are highly critical of human rights even if their criticisms have taken two diametrically opposed sides. This has created a conflict between the two groups. In this paper, I summarize the views of feminists and cultural relativists and then show that there are many similarities between them despite their differences, for they share a common ground concerning human rights discourse. Based on the similarities, I believe that both must work together on this matter by making changes in an inclusive way with regard to human rights violations. This is true not only at the international level but also at national levels. To demonstrate this, I analyze the issue of the sex-determination test in India and show that if feminists and cultural relativists joined hands, then the problem of aborting female fetuses in India (due to cultural conditioning and leading to the larger problem of adverse sex ratios) could be resolved. I conclude by proposing that medical technology could be channeled in the direction of progress if feminists and cultural relativists work jointly for the promotion of women's rights by recognizing 'different voices' of women across race, class, age, culture, sexual orientation and wealth.

10. The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 20
Vladimir Rogozhin

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11. The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 20
Margaret A. Simons

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Simone de Beauvoir's 1949 feminist masterpiece, The Second Sex, has traditionally been read as an application of Sartrean existentialism to the problem of women. Critics have claimed a Sartrean origin for Beauvoir's central theses: that under patriarchy woman is the Other, and that 'one is not born a woman, but becomes one.' An analysis of Beauvoir's recently discovered 1927 diary, written while she was a philosophy student at the Sorbonne, two years before her first meeting with Sartre, challenges this interpretation. In this diary, Beauvoir affirms her commitment to doing philosophy, defines the philosophical problem of 'the opposition of self and other,' and explores the links between love and domination. In 1927, she thus lays the foundations of both Sartre's phenomenology of interpersonal relationships and of her own thesis, in The Second Sex, that woman is the Other. Her descriptions of the experience of freedom and choice point to the influence of Bergson, specifically his concepts of 'becoming' and élan vital. Tracing Beauvoir's shift from her apolitical position of 1927 to the feminist engagement of The Second Sex points to the influence of the African-American writer, Richard Wright, whose description of the lived experience of oppression of blacks in America, and whose challenge to Marxist reductionism, provide Beauvoir with a model, an analogy, for analyzing woman's oppression.

12. The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 20
Vigdis Songe-Møller

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I want to look at two contrasting ways of seeing the relation between the sexes within ancient Greek thought by dividing Greek thought into two main traditions: the Platonic tradition from Parmenides through Plato to Aristotle, and what one might call 'the tragic tradition' including thinkers such as Anaximander, Heraclitus, and Empedocles. The Platonic tradition is characterized by hierarchical thinking in which the norm is unity, harmony and self-sufficiency. In Plato, this turns out to be the norm also for human existence, with the result that there is no room in his philosophy for thinking of sexual difference and sexual reproduction. When, on the other hand, conflicts, discord, and human vulnerability towards misfortune and death are looked upon as the constitutive elements of life-as with the tragic poets-sexual difference also plays an important part. When human existence is treated as something radically different from divinity, the Greek thinkers-in this paper exemplified by Empedocles and the tragic poets-tend to look upon sexual difference as a constitutive element in human existence. For the philosophers in this tradition, all being is constituted by two oppositional elements which do not form a hierarchy but rather an inimical antagonism. Misogyny is perhaps as strong in this 'tragic' tradition as it is in the Platonic-Aristotelian one. However, even if the former tradition has at least provided some space for thinking of sexual difference, it has not been very influential in western, European thought.

13. The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 20
Mary Lyn Stoll

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In A Theory of Justice, John Rawls defends two principles of justice, in part by an appeal to stability. Rawls claims that coupled with the publicity condition, the two principles are preferable because they are more likely to encourage stability than are average utilitarian theories. Rawls' radical and feminist opponents have found this appeal to stability problematic since they believe that achieving justice may sometimes necessitate the destabilization of society. Moreover, utilitarian critics argue that even if stability is granted as justification for a theory of justice, it seems at least plausible that institutions structured according to an average utilitarian conception of justice could yield a society that is just as stable. I will argue that with an accurate understanding of Rawls' appeal to stability, these sorts of criticisms lose their strength, and Rawls' argument for the stability of his two principles over average utilitarianism appears that much more convincing. Thus, by getting clear on what Rawls' appeal to stability entails, we gain a fuller understanding of his theory and its justification. Finally, I will consider a revised feminist critique that appeals to the appropriate understanding of stability and go on to suggest how Rawls might respond to such a critique.

14. The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 20
Olga Voronina

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This presentation focuses on the main philosophical approaches toward analyzing the notions of "sex" and "gender" in Russia since the nineteenth century. I analyze the conceptions and ideas which were developed by Aleksey Khomyakov, Nicolai Chernyshevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Fedor Dostoevsky, Vladimir Solovyov and some other philosophers. Then, I discuss the concept of emancipation of women within the framework of Marxist-Leninist theory, which played a role in the state's "women's philosophy" in the Soviet period, and within the existing modern viewpoints. My methodology is based on concepts and guidelines developed in feminist philosophy. One of the goals, as put forward by feminist philosophy, is to discover the gender determinateness of the metatheoretical foundations of science and traditional Western humanitarianism and of philosophy. This problem can be quite successfully solved on the basis of Western philosophic studies. Russian philosophy, however, has not so far become a subject of feminist analysis either in Russia or in the West. Therefore, my research in this field could be considered rather novel.

15. The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 20
Karen J. Warren

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Environmental philosophers, policy-makers and community activists who discuss environmental justice do so almost exclusively in terms of mainstream Western distributive models of social justice. Whether the issue is treatment of animals, human health or property, wilderness and species preservation, pollution or environmental degradation, the prevailing and largely unchallenged view is that the issues of environmental justice are for the most part distributive issues. I think this wholesale framing of considerations of environmental justice solely in terms of distribution is seriously flawed. Drawing on both ecofeminist insights into the inextricable interconnections between institutions of domination and Iris Young's work on the inadequacy of distributive models of social justice, I argue for the twofold claim that a distributive model of environmental justice is inadequate and that what is needed is an additional nondistributive model to supplement, complement and-in some cases-take precedence over a distributive model.

16. The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 20
Janet C. Wesselius

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The feminist philosopher Susan Bordo suggests that the dilemma of twentieth-century feminism is the tension between a gender identity that both mobilizes a liberatory politics on behalf of women and that results in gender prescriptions which excludes many women. This tension seems especially acute in feminist debates about essentialism/deconstructionism. Concentrating on the shared sex of women may run the risk of embracing an essentialism that ignores the differences among women, whereas emphasizing the constructed natures of sex and gender categories seems to threaten the very project of a feminist politics. I will analyze the possibility of dismantling gender prescriptions while retaining a gender identity that can be the beginning for an emancipatory politics. Perhaps feminists need not rely on a reified essentialism that elides the differences of race, class, etc., if we begin with our social practices of classification rather than with a priori generalizations about the nature of women.