Volume 8, Issue 20, Fall 2015
Hoyt Edge, Margaret A. McLaren
Pages 34-48
Relational Selves
Gender and Cultural Differences in Moral Reasoning
Our paper examines the impact of the intersection of cultural and gender identity on moral reasoning. We argue that concepts of self and approaches to moral reasoning are connected, concepts of self differ by gender and culture, moral reasoning differs by gender and culture. We propose that moral philosophy strives to be as inclusive as possible by including the full range of human diversity and experience. This would mean embracing—indeed, starting from—a multicultural, feminist approach to moral theories and questions; this approach would not only be sensitive to gender and cultural bias, but also offer an alternative model to the paradigmatic rational, autonomous, independent agent of traditional moral theory. This has implications for other areas of philosophy as well, such as recent work in philosophy of mind on the idea of extended cognition.