Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-767nl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T15:38:05.533Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Feminist Virtue Ethics, Happiness, and Moral Luck

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Marilyn Friedman
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Can men who dominate women nevertheless be happy or lead flourishing lives? Building on Claudia Card's exploration of moral luck, this paper considers the belief that male dominators cannot be happy. The discussion ranges over both virtue theory and empirical research into the “belief in a just world.” I conclude that there are reasons to avoid believing that male dominators cannot be happy or flourish, and that feminism does not need that belief.

Type
Oppression and Moral Agency: Essays in Honor of Claudia Card
Information
Hypatia , Volume 24 , Issue 1: Special Issue: Oppression and Moral Agency: Essays in Honor of Claudia Card , Winter 2009 , pp. 29 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 by Marilyn Friedman

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Annas, Julia. 1993. The morality of happiness. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Aristotle, . 1985. Nicomachean Ethics. Trans. Terence Irwin. Indianapolis, Ind.: Hackett Publishing.Google Scholar
Badhwar, Neera. 2006. Happiness as the highest good. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Calhoun, L. and Cann, A. 1994. Differences in assumptions about a just world: Ethnicity and point of view. Journal of Social Psychology 134:765–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Card, Claudia. 1996. The unnatural lottery: Character and moral luck. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Dittmar, H. and Dickinson, J. 1993. The perceived relationship between the belief in a just world and sociopolitical ideology. Social Justice Research 6:257–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doris, John M. 2002. Lack of character: Personality and moral behavior. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foot, Philippa. 2001. Natural goodness. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Furnham, Adrian. 2003. Belief in a just world: Research progress over the past decade. Personality and Individual Differences 34 (5): 795–817.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hafer, Carolyn L. and Bégue, Laurent. 2005. Experimental research on just‐world theory: Problems, developments, and future challenges. Psychological Bulletin 131 (1): 128–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hafer, Carolyn L. and Olson, James M. 1993. Belief in a just world, discontent, and assertive actions by working women. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 19:30–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harper, D. and Manasse, P. 1992. The just world and the third world: British explanations for poverty abroad. Journal of Social Psychology 132:783–85.Google Scholar
Lerner, Melvin J. 1980. The belief in a just world: A fundamental delusion. New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sumner, L.W. 1996. Welfare, happiness, and ethics. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Tessman, Lisa. 2005. Burdened virtues: Virtue ethics for liberatory struggles. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, B.A.O. and Nagel, Thomas. 1976. Moral luck. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 50 (Supp.): 115–51.Google Scholar