Abstract
This chapter discusses feminist critiques of the conventional conceptions of the self. They believe that these conceptions are incomplete and misleading as they ignore the multiple sources of social identity constituted by one's gender, sexual orientation, race, class, age, ethnicity, among others. They charge that Kantian and homo economicus views of the self are androcentric and masculinist. Feminist philosophical work on the self has taken three main tacks: critique of established views of the self, reclamation of women's selfhood, and reconceptualisation of the self to incorporate women's experience. Their reclamation strategies include revaluation of the 'feminine' activities of mothering and other modes for maintaining vital social bonds through the development of care ethics and eros ethics, exploration of separatist practices, rethinking autonomy to include women by moving beyond the Kantian and homo economicus models, and reclamation of sexual difference through a symbolic analysis of female identity.