Seyla Benhabib refuses to join poststructuralists in declaring the death of the autonomous, self-reflective individual who is capable of taking responsibility and acting on principle. Although she is committed to viewing people as socially situated, interpersonally bonded, and embodied, she is also committed to the feasibility of rational philosophical justification of universal moral norms (Allan's moral compass). Moreover, she argues that a narrative conception of the self renders the idea of a core self and coherent identity intelligible without suppressing difference and without insulating the self from social relations (a problem I have with personal development approaches). Autobiographical stories can include the many voices within us and the many relationships we have experienced, and these stories are constantly under revision, for they are always being contested by our associates' disparate self-narratives with their divergent versions of events. Nevertheless, these narratives do not collapse into incoherence, and they presuppose a core capacity to describe and reflect on one's experience. For Benhabib, this view of selfhood and reason is indispensable to feminist emancipatory objectives.
This was more or less my approach in teaching on gender issues over many years. Its great advantages include not needing the incredible complexity of much standard feminist literature and letting people work with their own stories, creative action, having fun with each other and forming their own learning groups, assessment criteria ... whatever. I'd throw in some biology - not all physical women are XX, men and women may have the opposite sex's general brain structure-functioning and gender and self as we generally think of them are not supported by much modern biology of the individual. With luck, my teaching would soon be subverted by actual interests in the class. What role do we think gender plays in self? What are the forces that cause this? -- --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
