PHIL 2150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Critical Legal Studies, Catharine Mackinnon, Radical Feminism

• School: Trent University
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHIL 2150
• Professor: Kyle Johannsen

Document Summary

First essay due date extended to feb 18th. Feminist jurisprudence is a family of views in legal studies united by a concern with and rejection of patriarchy in law and society. Liberal feminists understand patriarch primarily as a disruptive justice issue. A society is patriarchal, on their view, when there is an unequal distribution of rights, freedom, or opportunities between men and women. Radical feminists, in contrast, focus on the relationship between patriarchy and gender. On their view, gender is a form of domination that masquerades as a set of natural differences. A(cid:272)(cid:272)ordi(cid:374)g to cathari(cid:374)e ma(cid:272)ki(cid:374)(cid:374)o(cid:374), ge(cid:374)der differe(cid:374)(cid:272)es are prese(cid:374)ted as o(cid:374)tologi(cid:272)al, (cid:271)ut the(cid:455)"re really epistemological: ontological a term often used in metaphysics. Qualities that are attached to people: epistemological what you need to do in order to have knowledge. We use gender categories to understand each other, and ourselves.