Moral Understandings - 07 edition

Summary: This is a revised edition of Walker's well-known book in feminist ethics first published in 1997. Walker's book proposes a view of morality and an approach to ethical theory which uses the critical insights of feminism and race theory to rethink the epistemological and moral position of the ethical theorist, and how moral theory is inescapably shaped by culture and history. The main gist of her book is that morality is embodied in ''practices of responsibility'' that express our iden ...show moretities, values, and connections to others in socially patterned ways. Thus ethical theory needs to be empirically informed and politically critical to avoid reiterating forms of socially entrenched bias. Responsible ethical theory should reveal and question the moral significance of social differences. The book engages with, and challenges, the work of contemporary analytic philosophers in ethics. This is a revised edition of Walker's well-known book in feminist ethics first published in 1997. Walker's book proposes a view of morality and an approach to ethical theory which uses the critical insights of feminism and race theory to rethink the epistemological and moral position of the ethical theorist, and how moral theory is inescapably shaped by culture and history. The main gist of her book is that morality is embodied in ''practices of responsibility'' that express our identities, values, and connections to others in socially patterned ways. Thus ethical theory needs to be empirically informed and politically critical to avoid reiterating forms of socially entrenched bias. Responsible ethical theory should reveal and question the moral significance of social differences. The book engages with, and challenges, the work of contemporary analytic philosophers in ethics. ...show less

Edition/Copyright: 07
Cover: Paperback
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 09/13/2007

View Author Bio

Margaret Urban Walker is Lincoln Professor of Ethics and Professor of Philosophy at Arizona State University

View Table of Contents

Preface to the Second Edition Preface the First edition

Part One. The Mis-en-scene: Moral Philosophy Now
1. The Subject of Moral Philosophy, with Postscript, 2007
2. Where Do Moral Theories Come From? Henry Sidgwick and Twentieth Century Ethics

Part Two. Clearer Views: An Expressive-Collaborative Model
3. Authority and Transparency; The Examples of Feminist Skepticism
4. Charting Responsibilities: From Established Coordinates to Terra Incognita

Part Three. Self- (and Other) Portraits: Who Are We, and How Do We Know?
5. Picking Up Pieces: Lives, Stories and Integrity
6. Career Selves: Plans, Projects, and Plots in "Whole Life ethics"
7. Made A Slave, Born a Woman: Knowing Others' Places
8. Unnecessary Identities: Representational Practices and Moral Recognition

Part Four: Testing Sight Lines
9. The Politics of Transparency and the Moral Work of Truth
10. Peripheral Visions, Critical Practice

Epilogue: Some Questions About Moral Understandings

Notes

Bibliography