Dewey and Feminism: The Affective and Relationships in Dewey's Ethics

In: Hypatia: a journal of feminist philosophy, Volume 8, Issue 2, p. 78-95

Abstract

Dewey provides an ethics that is committed to those aspects of experience that have been associated with the "feminine." In addition to an argument against the devaluation of the affective and of concrete relationships, we also find in Dewey's ethics a thoughtful appreciation of how and why these things are essential to our moral life. In this article I consider the importance of the affective and of relationships in Dewey's ethics and set out aspects of Dewey's ethics that might be useful resources for feminist writers in ethics.