Startseite Philosophie Matter and Indifference: Realism and Anti-realism in Feminist Accounts of the Body
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Matter and Indifference: Realism and Anti-realism in Feminist Accounts of the Body

  • Deborah Goldgaber
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Idealism, Relativism, and Realism
Ein Kapitel aus dem Buch Idealism, Relativism, and Realism

Abstract

Recently, influential critics have argued that feminist accounts of the body are insufficiently realist and materialist. These emphasize the body’s social or discursive ‘construction’ at the expense of biological morphogenesis. The way feminists ‘bracket’ the body’s biological status prevents them from theorizing the relation and interaction of social and biological forces. While these materialist critiques correctly diagnose issues with certain anti-realist accounts of embodiment, which contest that the body has a biological essence, most feminist accounts of embodiment, I argue, are not anti-realist in this respect. Indeed, contrary to an increasingly influential view, feminist accounts of discursive construction are not inherently anti-realist or anti-materialist. The real issue with constructivist accounts is not that they exclude the body’s organic or biological substance, as the materialists argue, but rather the assumption that discursive construction refers exclusively to cultural processes. Thus, I propose rereading feminist new materialist critiques as motivating the extension of ‘discursive construction’ beyond the human.

Abstract

Recently, influential critics have argued that feminist accounts of the body are insufficiently realist and materialist. These emphasize the body’s social or discursive ‘construction’ at the expense of biological morphogenesis. The way feminists ‘bracket’ the body’s biological status prevents them from theorizing the relation and interaction of social and biological forces. While these materialist critiques correctly diagnose issues with certain anti-realist accounts of embodiment, which contest that the body has a biological essence, most feminist accounts of embodiment, I argue, are not anti-realist in this respect. Indeed, contrary to an increasingly influential view, feminist accounts of discursive construction are not inherently anti-realist or anti-materialist. The real issue with constructivist accounts is not that they exclude the body’s organic or biological substance, as the materialists argue, but rather the assumption that discursive construction refers exclusively to cultural processes. Thus, I propose rereading feminist new materialist critiques as motivating the extension of ‘discursive construction’ beyond the human.

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Table of Contents V
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Part 1 Idealism
  5. Metaphysics, Thinking, and Being 17
  6. Jacobi’s Dare: McDowell, Meillassoux, and Consistent Idealism 35
  7. How Not to Be a Naïve Realist: On Knowledge and Perception 57
  8. Is Hermeneutic Realism a Dialectical Materialism? 81
  9. Nature After Nature, or Naturephilosophical Futurism 97
  10. Part 2 Relativism
  11. Metaontological Deflationism and Ontological Realism 115
  12. Stances, Voluntarism, Relativism 131
  13. Subjectivity as a Feature of Reality: On Diffraction Laws of Consciousness and Reality Within Justified True Belief 155
  14. Concrete-in-Thought, Concrete-in-Act: Marx, Materialism, and the Exchange Abstraction 175
  15. Matter and Indifference: Realism and Anti-realism in Feminist Accounts of the Body 193
  16. Part 3 Realism
  17. Saying What is Not 217
  18. Sense, Realism, and Ontological Difference 233
  19. Realism without Hobbes and Schmitt: Assessing the Latourian Option 257
  20. The Objectivity of the Actual: Hegelianism as a Metaphysics of Modal Actualism 275
  21. Nomological Realism 293
  22. Realism Without Entities 311
  23. Notes on the contributors 325
  24. Index of Names 329
  25. Index of Subjects 333
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110670349-011

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Table of Contents V
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Part 1 Idealism
  5. Metaphysics, Thinking, and Being 17
  6. Jacobi’s Dare: McDowell, Meillassoux, and Consistent Idealism 35
  7. How Not to Be a Naïve Realist: On Knowledge and Perception 57
  8. Is Hermeneutic Realism a Dialectical Materialism? 81
  9. Nature After Nature, or Naturephilosophical Futurism 97
  10. Part 2 Relativism
  11. Metaontological Deflationism and Ontological Realism 115
  12. Stances, Voluntarism, Relativism 131
  13. Subjectivity as a Feature of Reality: On Diffraction Laws of Consciousness and Reality Within Justified True Belief 155
  14. Concrete-in-Thought, Concrete-in-Act: Marx, Materialism, and the Exchange Abstraction 175
  15. Matter and Indifference: Realism and Anti-realism in Feminist Accounts of the Body 193
  16. Part 3 Realism
  17. Saying What is Not 217
  18. Sense, Realism, and Ontological Difference 233
  19. Realism without Hobbes and Schmitt: Assessing the Latourian Option 257
  20. The Objectivity of the Actual: Hegelianism as a Metaphysics of Modal Actualism 275
  21. Nomological Realism 293
  22. Realism Without Entities 311
  23. Notes on the contributors 325
  24. Index of Names 329
  25. Index of Subjects 333
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Heruntergeladen am 3.10.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110670349-011/html
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