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Show Rationality and the Structure of the Self, Volume I: The Humean Conception 561 Of course Baier is, as we have already seen, no kinder to male philosophers, those "members of an all-male club" of "misogynists" and "puritan bachelors" concerned only to "read [their] Times in peace and have no one step on [their] gouty toes" (MP 114). To that Baier feels compelled to add that the preoccupation with Prisoner's Dilemma problems is a "big boys' game," and "pretty silly" (MP 2); that deontological principles are inherently "authoritarian" (MP 216) and "patriarchal" (MP 222); and that contract is a "male fixation" (MP 114). In the very first pages of Moral Prejudices Baier notes the dangers of generalizing on such matters (MP 1, 2), and then declares that since "exceptions confirm the rule," she will "proceed undaunted" nevertheless (MP 2). But Baier's is the kind of generalizing that, when encountered in historical texts written by male philosophers, lead us to counsel our undergraduates on the challenge of reading philosophical texts carefully, and of patiently culling the deep philosophical insights from the chaff of personal prejudice and social anachronism that flaws every historical work. Seeing such personal prejudices expressed in print by a contemporary feminist philosopher concerned to fight against stereotypes of women certainly presents a pedagogical challenge, if no other kind. But it is when Baier gets to her unfounded speculations about the biological limitations on women's professional potential that she inflicts the most serious damage on the women she means to support. She wonders whether "enough women professionally [will] survive their high estrogen years;" whether "they [will] be able to squeeze out enough articles while they are menstruating, gestating, and lactating;" and whether we should not expect them to hit their intellectual prime around age 50 when all that is behind them (MP 298) - forgetting, it seems, that that is roughly the age at which both Kant and Rawls began to produce their major philosophical contributions as well. Baier is, of course, entitled to her views about women and their intellectual and professional potential. But expressing in print her view of women as virtual slaves to their biology, whose capacity we must question, during their childbearing years, to do anything more than extrude various organic effluvia, including maybe an article or two every now and then, reinforces some of the ugliest and most damaging stereotypes - of women as cows, to put it bluntly - we have suffered. No male philosopher could get away with such pronouncements. Richard Brandt's notorious comparison of a hypothetical woman to a dog who is confused about what kind of feed it 23 wants pales by comparison. It is impossible to doubt the depth and integrity of Baier's feminist commitment. So it is difficult to know what to make of all this. We have 23 Richard Brandt, "Rational Desire," APA Western Division Presidential Address, Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association XLIII (1969-1970), 43-64. © Adrian Piper Research Archive Foundation Berlin |
