Background
Held, Virginia was born on October 28, 1929 in Mendham, New Jersey, United States. Daughter of John Howard Nott and Margaretta (Wood) Potter.
( When feminist philosophers first turned their attention...)
When feminist philosophers first turned their attention to traditional ethical theory, its almost exclusive emphasis upon justice, rights, abstract rationality, and individual autonomy came under special criticism. Women’s experiences seemed to suggest the need for a focus on care, empathetic relations, and the interdependence of persons.The most influential readings of what has become an extremely lively and fruitful debate are reproduced here along with important new contributions by Alison Jaggar and Sara Ruddick. As this volume testifies, there is no agreement on the important questions about the relationship between justice and care, but the debate has deepened and enriched our understanding in many ways.Justice and Care is a valuable collection of readingsan essential tool for anyone studying the state of feminist thought in particular or ethical theory in general.
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( Theories of justice, argues Virginia Held, are usually ...)
Theories of justice, argues Virginia Held, are usually designed for a perfect, hypothetical world. They do not give us guidelines for living in an imperfect world in which the choices and decisions that we must make are seldom clear-cut. Seeking a morality based on actual experience, Held offers a method of inquiry with which to deal with the specific moral problems encountered in daily life. She argues that the division between public and private morality is misleading and shows convincingly that moral judgment should be contextual. She maps out different approaches and positions for various types of issues, including membership in a state, legal decisions, political activities, economic transactions, interpersonal relations, diplomacy, journalism, and determining our obligation to future generations. Issues such as these provide the true test of moral theory, since its success is seen in the willingness of conscientious persons to commit themselves to it by acting on it in their daily lives.
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Held, Virginia was born on October 28, 1929 in Mendham, New Jersey, United States. Daughter of John Howard Nott and Margaretta (Wood) Potter.
Held was named Distinguished Professor at the City University of New York – Graduate Center and Hunter College in 1996, received her Doctor of Philosophy in philosophy from Columbia University in 1968 and worked at Hunter College as lecturer (1965-1969), assistant professor (1969-1972), associate professor (1973-1977) and full professor from 1977 to her retirement in 2001.
Barnard College- 1964-1966. Hunter College, CUNY, from 1965, Professor of Philosophy, CUNY College Graduate Centre, from 1977. Visiting Professor, Yale 1972, Dartmouth.
Natural History, 1984. UCLA 1986; Truax Visiting Professor. Hamilton College, 1989.
Director of NEH Summer Seminar, Stanford La" School, 1981. Visiting Scholar, Harvard Law School, 1981-1982. Fulbright Fellow, 1950.
Rockefeller Foundation Fellow, 1975 -6. Fellow of Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford. 1984-1985; President, American Section of International Association of Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy, 1981-1983» Executive Committee, Eastern Division, American Philosophical Association, 1979-1981.
Chair, Society for Philosophy and Public Affairs, 1972- Member of Society for Women in PhilosophyMember of editorial boards. Ethics, Hyp“t,a; Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, PoH‘ tical Theory, Public Affairs Quarterly, Social Theory and Practice, 1982 91. Reporter on the The Reporter.
( When feminist philosophers first turned their attention...)
( Theories of justice, argues Virginia Held, are usually ...)
Held"s work on the morality of political violence viewed through the window of ethics of care has also been significantly influential.
Held s writings aim to use the tools of philosophical analysis and the actual experiences of life to develop moral and political theories as guidelines 0r practice. Her first book (1970) critically examines a number of theories of the public 'merest and suggests an alternative explication of he concept: that the concept lies in an area etween the ‘is’ and the ‘ought’, that it may be seen lorn alternative points of view, and that valid judgements applying it can be made. In her second °°k (1984) Held argues that theories of justice e g. Rawls) are usually designed for a perfect hypothetical world and hence do not help us in an 'm perfect world where choices and decisions are seldom clearcut. She criticizes the division bejWeen public and private morality as misleading and shows that moral judgement should be c°ntextual by mapping out different approaches and positions for various types of issues. Recently she has een applying specifically women’s experience to 1 e understanding of moral theory. Offering a ^conceptualization of human birth, she argues *89) that, like human death, birth is distinctively uman rather than merely natural, and that the adition of describing human birth as a natural event has served the normative purpose of ^counting the value of women’s experiences and activities. In Feminist Morality (1993) Held examines how feminist critiques and reconcepmizations are transforming moral theory by emphasizing the caring emotions and sensitivity ‘ d responsiveness to concrete individuals, conenng the household as no less relevant to morality and moral theory than the polis, and developing concepts of the self as relational rather than as either atomistic or communal.
Member American Philosophical Association (Executive Committee Eastern division 1979-1981, Eastern division representative 1992-1995), Columbia University Seminars (Association), Conference Methods (Executive Committee since 1971), International Association Philosophy Law and Social Philospohy (president American section 1981-1983), Society Philosophy and Public Affairs (Chairman.1972), Society Women in Philosophy.
Married Hans W. Held, September 1950 (divorced 1981). Children: Julia, Philip.