Abstract

In this dissertation, I argue that writing philosophical texts is a self-constituting activity as well as a meaning-producing activity and that both activities are gender-informed. To do this I develop an interpretive framework based on some philosophical and psychoanalytic theories of self viewed from a feminist perspective. The philosophical theories provide the background and context for a closer examination of a Lacanian theory of self. The latter is then critiqued and revised in light of object relations theory and feminist perspectives on psychoanalysis . I then apply this interpretive framework to specific texts of three philosophers . I target a puzzle of interpretation presented by each of these texts. With the help of my interpretive framework I give each text a "gender-sensitive" reading that resolves the puzzle in an illuminating way. ;Each text demonstrates what I term a variation in male positioning with its own version of a gender barrier that precludes certain solutions to problems presented by the text. By exploring constraints presented by the need to maintain a particular version of male positioning, I provide an internal critique of what we might call a "masculinist" perspective. Such a critique, by calling attention to the inherent limitations of three examples of male positioning, motivates an expansion of that perspective to incorporate other points of view. I thus hope to demonstrate some ways in which gender categories inform philosophical "truths" and to motivate further work on the effects of gender in philosophical texts. Such work could clarify problems in self-constituting activity presented by the need to maintain a particular gender identity, and possibly suggest avenues for solutions to philosophical problems that would involve deconstructing gender categories entirely