Public Reason: Vol. 10, No. 1, 2018
Feminism, Agency and Objectivity
Adelin Costin Dumitru
In this article I defend the capability approach by focusing on its built-in gender-sensitivity and on its concern with comprehensive outcomes and informationally-rich evaluation of well-being, two elements of Sen’s work that are too rarely put together. I then try to show what the capability approach would have to gain by focusing on trans-positional objectivity (as Elizabeth Anderson does) and by leaving behind the narrow confines of states in favor of a more cosmopolitan stance. These preliminary discussions are followed by two more precise applications. At first, I show how a gender-sensitive capability approach that respects the criteria of trans-positional objectivity and cosmopolitanism can enhance the agency of women inhabiting third-world societies. I turn next to show how mainstream feminism can insulate itself against criticisms such as bell hooks’ by switching to trans-positional objectivity in public reasoning.
Key words: agency, capabilities, gender-sensitive theory, informational parsimony, open impartiality, positional objectivity.
Adelin Costin Dumitru.2018. Feminism, Agency and Objectivity. <em>Public Reason</em> 10 (1): 81-100.

Citation

Adelin Costin Dumitru.2018. Feminism, Agency and Objectivity. Public Reason 10 (1): 81-100.