Synopses & Reviews
Legal Personhood draws upon contemporary feminist philosophy in order to consider the meaning of legal personhood, its relationship to human freedom and autonomy and its connection to what is classified as public and private. Contemporary feminist philosophy has much to say about the ways in which we have understood what it means to be a person and to have rights in law. Womena (TM)s contingent and historical position can be used as a tool to highlight tensions in traditional views of personhood. However, Janice Richardson goes beyond this critique to explore how the legal and political implications of feminist critiques of legal personhood can found new ways of thinking about ourselves and law that is applicable to both men and women.
Synopsis
Situating privacy within the context of political philosophy, this book highlights the way in which struggles concerning the meaning of privacy have always been political. Different conceptions of privacy are here shown to involve diverse assumptions about ontology: our conceptions of self, culture, society and communication. Privacy theory's debt to Locke, Kant or Mill, and what is at stake in their conceptual frameworks, is examined. The extent to which the term privacy has been used to the detriment of - and to create - weaker parties in marriage, in the workplace and now as citizens (or non-citizens) and consumers, as well as employees, is also demonstrated. In contrast, Janice Richardson pursues the relevance of Floridi's philosophy of information, before turning to her application of Spinoza, the philosopher of communication, in order to outline a more useful framework through which to think about privacy today. The book will be of interest to those working in political philosophy, feminist philosophy, law, the philosophy of information, sociology, media, and cultural studies.