Kantianism, Liberalism, and Feminism (PDF)

Carol Hay is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at University of Massachusetts Lowell, USA. Her work focuses primarily on issues in analytic feminism, liberal social and political philosophy, and Kantian ethics.

"In the most sustained analysis of a duty to resist oppression to date, Hay defends a Kantian account of a duty of self-respect on the part of the oppressed to resist their own oppression. Intriguing and challenging cases motivate the deep issues presented, followed by detailed analyses and fair and open-minded presentation of all sides of the debates. This clear and engaging book is a must-read by anyone interested in oppression, moral psychology, and feminism." - Anita Superson, University of Kentucky, USA

"Progressives concerned about gender domination and other kinds of social oppression have traditionally viewed liberalism with a jaundiced eye not at all the solution, but very much part of the problem. In this spirited contrarian text, Carol Hay makes a bold and lucid case for the defense. She argues that despite liberalism's historic complicity with patriarchy and Kantianism's abstraction and hyper-rationalism, Kant's crucial concept of duties to oneself can indeed be turned to emancipatory ends, thereby redeeming deontological liberalism for a radical feminist agenda. If mainstream liberals uninterested in social oppression issues and non-mainstream progressives uninterested in liberalism want to have their unthinking presuppositions challenged (and even if they don't), they both need to read this provocative book." Charles W. Mills, John Evans Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy, Northwestern University, USA

Hay's chapter on "The Obligation to Resist Oppression" was the winner of the prestigious 2014 Gregory Kavka/UCI Prize in Political Philosophy, awarded by the American Philosophical Association.