At the Heart of Freedom
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A Theory of Justice
A01=Drucilla Cornell
Adoption
Affirmative action
Altruism
Attempt
Author_Drucilla Cornell
Autonomy
Bodily integrity
Carol Smart
Category=JBFA
Category=JBSF
Category=JBSF11
Consent
Dignity
Due Process Clause
Empowerment
Engagement
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eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Equal footing
Equal opportunity
Equal Protection Clause
Equality before the law
Ethics
Family values
Femininity
Feminism
Feminism (international relations)
Freedom of association
Freedom of speech
Fundamental rights
Human rights
Humility
Imaginary Domain
Individualism
Individuation
Just society
Legitimacy (family law)
Lesbian
Liberalism
Morality
Mother
Nationalism and Culture
Optimism
Original position
Patriarchy
Peaceful Revolution
Person
Personhood
Political Liberalism
Primary goods
Privacy
Promiscuity
Prostitution
Public value
Quality of life
Quid Pro Quo
Rationality
Reflective equilibrium
Relativism
Religion
Respect for persons
Right to privacy
Rights
Safe-space
Self-concept
Self-ownership
Seriousness
Social equality
Sovereignty
State of nature
Subjectivity
Surrogacy
Toleration
Utopia
Value pluralism
Product details
- ISBN 9780691028965
- Weight: 397g
- Dimensions: 197 x 254mm
- Publication Date: 04 Oct 1998
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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How can women create a meaningful and joyous life for themselves? Is it enough to be equal with men? In this provocative and wide-ranging book, Drucilla Cornell argues that women should transcend the quest for equality and focus on what she shows is a far more radical project: achieving freedom. Cornell takes us on a highly original exploration of what it would mean for women politically, legally, and culturally, if we took this ideal of freedom seriously--if, in her words, we recognized that "hearts starve as well as bodies." She takes forceful and sometimes surprising stands on such subjects as abortion, prostitution, pornography, same-sex marriage, international human rights, and the rights and obligations of fathers. She also engages with what it means to be free on a theoretical level, drawing on the ideas of such thinkers as Kant, Rawls, Ronald Dworkin, Hegel, and Lacan. Cornell begins by discussing what she believes lies at the heart of freedom: the ability for all individuals to pursue happiness in their own way, especially in matters of love and sex.
This is only possible, she argues, if we protect the "imaginary domain"--a psychic and moral space in which individuals can explore their own sources of happiness. She writes that equality with men does not offer such protection, in part because men themselves are not fully free. Instead, women must focus on ensuring that individuals face minimal interference from the state and from oppressive cultural norms. They must also respect some controversial individual choices. Cornell argues in favor of permitting same-sex couples to marry and adopt children, for example. She presses for access to abortion and for universal day care. She also justifies lifestyles that have not always been supported by other feminists, ranging from staying at home as a primary caregiver to engaging in prostitution. She argues that men should have similar freedoms--thus returning feminism to its promise that freedom for women would mean freedom for all. Challenging, passionate, and powerfully argued, Cornell's book will have a major impact on the course of feminist thought.
Drucilla Cornell is Professor of Law, Political Science, and Women's Studies at Rutgers University. She is the author of numerous books, including The Imaginary Domain: A Discourse on Abortion, Pornography, and Sexual Harassment and Transformations: Recollective Imagination and Sexual Difference. She has also edited and coedited several books, including Feminism and Pornography (forthcoming) and Deconstruction and the Possibility of Justice (with Michel Rosenfeld and David G. Carlson).
