Criticism and Compassion: The Ethics and Politics of Claudia Card

Criticism and Compassion: The Ethics and Politics of Claudia Card offers a unique perspective on the range of issues explored by Card during her distinguished career in philosophy. She was an early leader in the development of feminist philosophy, challenging many preconceptions about society′s norms regarding gender, marriage, and motherhood. Her work in these areas raised fundamental issues in ethical theory as it had been conceived in the profession. Her work on evil, human rights, war, and genocide crossed many disciplinary boundaries. Her concept of social death has come to play a significant role in the multidisciplinary field of genocide studies. This volume combines many of Claudia Card′s important essays with recently commissioned essays by leading philosophers whose work has been influenced by Card. The full scope of Card′s philosophy is presented here, both in her own words and in those of her critics and interpreters.

Notes on Contributors vii

Introduction 1
ARMEN T. MARSOOBIAN AND ROBIN S. DILLON

Part One: War, Genocide, and Evil 11

1 Rape as a Weapon of War 13
CLAUDIA CARD

2 Addendum to Rape as a Weapon of War 27
CLAUDIA CARD

3 Stoicism, Evil, and the Possibility of Morality 31
CLAUDIA CARD

4 Women, Evil, and Gray Zones 41
CLAUDIA CARD

5 Genocide and Social Death 61
CLAUDIA CARD

6 The Paradox of Genocidal Rape Aimed at Enforced Pregnancy 79
CLAUDIA CARD

7 Surviving Long–Term Mass Atrocities 93
CLAUDIA CARD

8 Perpetrators and Social Death: A Cautionary Tale 113
LYNNE TIRRELL

9 Claudia Card s Concept of Social Death: A New Way of Looking at Genocide 133
JAMES SNOW

10 Surviving Evils and the Problem of Agency: An Essay Inspired by the Work of Claudia Card 153
DIANA TIETJENS MEYERS

11 Institutional Evils, Culpable Complicity, and Duties to Engage in Moral Repair 171
ELIANA PECK AND ELLEN K. FEDER

Part Two: Feminist Ethical Theory and Its Applications 193

12 Against Marriage and Motherhood 195
CLAUDIA CARD

13 Gay Divorce: Thoughts on the Legal Regulation of Marriage 219
CLAUDIA CARD

14 Challenges of Global and Local Misogyny 235
CLAUDIA CARD

15 Taking Pride in Being Bad 253
CLAUDIA CARD

16 Hate Crime Legislation Reconsidered 269
MARCIA BARON

17 Misplaced Gratitude and the Ethics of Oppression 289
ROBIN MAY SCHOTT

18 The Challenges of Extreme Moral Stress: Claudia Card s Contributions to the Formation of Nonideal Ethical Theory 303
KATHRYN J. NORLOCK

19 Radical Moral Imagination and Moral Luck 319
MAVIS BISS

20 The American Girl: Playing with the Wrong Dollie? 331
VICTORIA DAVION

Index 345

ROBIN S. DILLON is the William Wilson Selfridge Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Ethics at Lehigh University. She writes on self–respect – to which Claudia Card introduced her – and related concepts, including respect, arrogance, humility, self–forgiveness, and self–esteem. She has also published numerous articles on Kantian ethics, feminist ethics, and virtue and vice.

ARMEN T. MARSOOBIAN is Professor and Chair of Philosophy at Southern Connecticut State University and Editor–in–Chief of Metaphilosophy. He has taught as a visiting professor at Columbia University. He has lectured and published extensively on topics in American philosophy, aesthetics, moral philosophy, and genocide studies. He has edited five books, including The Blackwell Guide to American Philosophy and Genocide′s Aftermath: Responsibility and Repair with Claudia Card. His award–winning book Fragments of a Lost Homeland: Remembering Armenia is based upon extensive research about his family, the Dildilians, who were accomplished photographers in the Ottoman Empire. Exhibitions of their photography were mounted in Turkey, Armenia, Great Britain, and the United States.