Habermas and Feminism: Critical Reflections on Normativity

In this volume, Taine Duncan offers a critique of Jürgen Habermas inspired by ethical and political feminist philosophy. She argues for a critical, theoretically grounded relational ethics and maintains that modern critical theory must be sensitive to social, political, and embodied difference. The utopian spirit of normative ethics, she suggests, can only be fairly achieved by fluidly working together for shared interests. By synthesizing feminist hopes for utopian ideals with the concept of solidarity that emerges from a relational ethics, this book puts forth a feminist project of cosmopolitanism as foundational for an ethical society. Habermas and Feminism explores the relevance of Habermas to philosophy while discussing how his strictures and assumptions limit what normative ethics should actually engender, a notion of embodied subjectivity contributing to emancipation and political participation. 

Duncan delves into the pressing contemporary need for an emancipatory democratic theory that is responsive to feminist thought and takes intersectionality, immigration issues, and disability theory into account. By contrasting Habermas’ recent applications of normativity and consensus with the realities of feminist concerns, this book offers an alternative critical theoretical perspective.