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Fetal Relationality in Feminist Philosophy: An Anthropological Critique

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2020

Abstract

This essay critiques feminist treatments of maternal-fetal “relationality” that unwittingly replicate features of Western individualism (for example, the Cartesian division between the asocial body and the social-cognitive person, or the conflation of social and biological birth). I argue for a more reflexive perspective on relationality that would acknowledge how we produce persons through our actions and rhetoric. Personhood and relationality can be better analyzed as dynamic, negotiated qualities realized through social practice.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 by Hypatia, Inc.

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