Imaginary Bodies: Ethics, Power and CorporealityMoira Gatens investigates the ways in which differently sexed bodies can occupy the same social or political space. Representations of sexual difference have unacknowledged philosophical roots which cannot be dismissed as a superficial bias on the part of the philosopher, nor removed without destroying the coherence of the philosophical system concerned. The deep structural bias against women extends beyond metaphysics and its effects are felt in epistemology, moral, social and political theory. The idea of sexual difference is contextualised in Imaginary Bodies and traced through the history of philosophy. Using her work on Spinoza, Gatens develops alternative conceptions of power, new ways of conceiving women's embodiment and their legal, political and ethical status. |
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affects analysis argued behaviour biological body image body politic Brian Maxwell chapter civil body claim conception concerning consciousness constituted construction contemporary feminist context critical crucial culture Descartes discourses dominant dualisms embodied essays essentialist ethical relations example exclusion existence female body feminism feminist theory Foucault’s Freud function genealogy historical human body Ibid ideology imaginary body imagination individual institutions intersexual involves Lacan liberal live London male body Marxist feminism masculinity and femininity mind Mirror Stage moral narratives nature Nietzsche notion offers one’s particular passions passive Pateman patriarchal perspective philosophy political and ethical political body political theory Political Treatise present psychoanalytic question radical feminism rape reason representations responsibility Routledge scholium sex and gender sex/gender distinction sexed bodies Sexual Contract sexual difference sexual imaginaries social and political social contract social imaginaries sociopolitical specific Spinoza Spinozist Theologico-Political Treatise theorists transsexualism understanding understood University Press woman women women’s bodies