Lecture 5: Enlightenment & Social contract

What were the beliefs at the time of enlightenment?

That the hierarchies in place (inequalities) were natural & made by God

• King was born & chosen to rule over others

• that inequalities between men & women were natural

What is enlightenment?

A project that failed to provide universal progress

Enlightenment challenges:

• Government authority

• Government ruled nations

→ feminists engage with it to end dominance & exploitation

What were salons at the time?

Places owned by upper-class that allowed intellectuals to congregate

• critical for the exchange of ideas

• women were excluded from this space but they were owned by women!

• First public salon led to salons today

What was the failed theory/idea proposed by Enlightenment?

Wanted to reject idea that your life is told from birth → not let class dictate your life

How did Enlightenment fail in the U.S.?

Enlightenment was good in theory but the application failed (the U.S.)

• rights given to straight, white, property owning men in practice

• idea that the natural function of women were to make spaces calm & civil

• Women get to create but not participate in public sphere

What is the issue with Enlightenment?

The idea is seen from a universal outlook → discounts the differences between people (marginalized groups)

What is the social contract?

An Enlightenment moral, political, philosophical project

• How society should be run → give up freedoms in exchange for safety

• Opposes natural hierarchies → being born = right to freedom

• no mention of women

How did Pateman & Mills blur moral & political philosophy?

Says political questions become a type of moral one

→ blurring the lines and don’t treat them as separate

• Issue: turns structural issues into individual moral ones

→ ignores subordination of other groups

• Pateman focus: women

• Mills focus: race

What Susan Molker Okin’s thought experiment?

What would a free, equal, self-interesting person agree to?

• Would you want to be a woman, black, gay in society?

→ hesitation displays present political issues

What is the sexual contract?

The social contract is really a sexual contract to keep women subordinate

• Women become financially dependent on men where 1 party is stronger than the other (marriage contract)

What is Jean Hampton’s ethical social contract?

Jean Hampton says to act in dignity, self-worth, and self-interest

How is Kantian self-worth & Hobbesian bargain related?

Acting in self-interest leads to bargaining

• risk disrespecting yourself to get as much as you CAN