WHAT IS FEMINIST MORAL PHILOSOPHY?
The general mission of feminist philosophy is to correct whatever male biases may exist in mainstream philosophical traditions; thus, Western feminist philosophers investigate and challenge the ways in which Western traditions may have participated in subordinating women or rationalizing their subordination. A thin and highly abstract characterization of the project of Western feminist moral philosophy is that it seeks to overcome the overt and covert devaluation of women and whatever has been associated culturally with the feminine in the ideals, concepts and theories of Western moral philosophy. A somewhat thicker or more substantive idea of the character of feminist moral philosophy in the West is offered by the following schematic reconstruction of its trajectory over the past thirty years. 1. Identifying masculine bias in Western moral philosophy. Among the most obvious manifestations of masculine bias in Western moral philosophy have been frequent failures by philosophers working
