ABSTRACT
NATURE, FEMINISM, AND FLOURISHING:
HUMAN NATURE AND THE FEMINIST
ETHICS OF FLOURISHING
Celeste D. Harvey
This dissertation examines the viability of a feminist ethic of flourishing. The possibility of a
eudaimonist or flourishing-based ethic, adapted for the needs of feminist ethics and politics, has
recently been raised by a number of feminist moral philosophers. However, in these discussions,
the degree to which an ethics of flourishing requires a substantive conception of human nature
has not been adequately addressed. Flourishing-based ethical theories appear to require a
substantive account of the kind of thing whose flourishing is to be promoted, while
contemporary academic feminism is characterized by a strong suspicion toward claims about
human nature.
Chapter one situates this problem in the current literature and reframes feminist antiessentialist objections to nature claims. Chapter two analyzes three historically influential
exemplars of the ethics of flourishing: Aristotle, Hume and Marx. Employing the analytic
categories developed in chapter two, chapters three through five assess the work of Rosalind
Hursthouse, Martha Nussbaum and Lisa Tessman for their adequacy to serve as the basis of
feminist ethic of flourishing. I argue that each has something of value to offer and yet each is
problematic when it comes to how they appeal (or fail to appeal) to human nature.
The central argument of this dissertation is that, properly understood, a theory of human
nature can be a critical resource for a feminist ethic of flourishing. As such, feminist moral
philosophers who would condemn oppression, gender-based subordination and other injustices
by appealing to an ideal of flourishing that is being denied or cut off would benefit from greater
attention to the assumptions about human nature which theories of flourishing entail. On the
view defended here, a normative conception of human nature is a necessary methodological
element of a flourishing-based ethical theory that illuminates the reasons one has in support of a
particular vision of flourishing. While I leave open the question of how such a conception of
human nature could be objectively justified, this dissertation argues that a theory of human
nature can serve as a normative resource for feminist moral criticism within a flourishing-based
ethical framework.