Abstract

I will attempt to show that feminist philosophy is a necessary part of philosophy at this time in history. I focus on one specific concept, the concept of phallocentrism, in order to show its development, its ramifications, and the necessity of working within a feminist framework to overcome it. I define phallocentrism as the symbolic, narrative and socio-legal construction of an asymmetrical subjectivity based on gender that assigns the full powers of the subject to the masculine with attendant rights and respect and denies the same to the feminine . I wove my discussion together by looking at the various interpretations of Antigone. These interpretations allowed me to show how the theories employed in these interpretations place women phallocentrically in a number of specific ways with respect to family and society, desire and lack, beauty and death. In each case, I was able to then conclude whether or not, and if so in what ways, the theory is phallocentric. ;I consider the philosophic theories of G. W. F. Hegel, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, Helene Cixous and Luce Irigaray. The theories of Hegel and Lacan ultimately place women in a subservient position from which they cannot escape. Although Derrida argues against the phallocentric positioning of women by his predecessor's theories, ultimately his theory is just as limiting as the others. The phallocentrism of Derridean theory is more subtle, but it is still there. The theoretical work of Cixous and Irigaray shows the necessity of developing specifically feminist theory in order to overcome gender asymmetry. ;Phallocentrism is seen as a limiting experience, and as limiting theoretically, from several different points of view. I believe that I show that the criticism of phallocentrism is a premise in a philosophically rigorous argument regarding the necessity of incorporating feminism into social theory, developed both by men and women, that grows out of an argument against an absolute, metanarrative form of knowledge. If there is not any one form of knowledge, truth or power, still historical theoretical constructions of knowledge/power have been one-sided and oppressive. To overcome the inherent oppression in these historical theories, it is necessary to consider alternative world views. One of these alternatives is the feminist world view, and one of its focuses is to overcome the phallocentrism in the patriarchy. Thus, the use of the concept of phallocentrism as a critique also offers a starting point for the development of new philosophies that are not exclusionary or rigid, but could practically embrace the diversity of frameworks of understanding that are present in our world today