Relational Autonomy Feminist Perspectives on Autonomy, Agency, and the Social Self

This collection of original essays explores the social and relational dimensions of individual autonomy. Rejecting the feminist charge that autonomy is inherently masculinist, the contributors draw on feminist critiques of autonomy to challenge and enrich contemporary philosophical debates about agency, identity, and moral responsibility. The essays analyse the complex ways in which oppression can impair an agent's capacity for autonomy, and investigate connections, neglected by standard accounts, between autonomy and other aspects of the agent, including self-conception, self-worth, memory, and the imagination.

1 - Autonomy, social disruption and women
2 - Autonomy and the social self
3 - Feeling crazy: self worth and the social character of responsibility
4 - Autonomy and the feminist intuition
5 - Individuals, responsibility and the philosophical imagination
6 - Imagining oneself otherwise
7 - Intersectional identity and the authentic self?: Opposites attract
8 - The perversion of autonomy and the subjection of women: discourses of social advocacy at century's end
9 - Choice and control in feminist bioethics
10 - Autonomy and interdependence: quandaries in genetic decision-making
11 - Relational autonomy, self-trust, and health care for patients who are oppressed
12 - Relational autonomy and freedom of expression