Women, nature and the Kantian sublime: can a reconciliation be found?

Abstract

This thesis will investigate the relationship between Immanuel Kant, women and the natural world. Using mainly Kant’s third critique, The Critique of Judgement and his Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime, I will seek to establish whether Kant’s philosophy can be interpreted more sympathetically with regards to the environment, women and perhaps even to ecofeminism; than has traditionally been allowed. This research will explore Kant’s thoughts on the beautiful and the sublime, as well as a wider range of linked issues such as aesthetics, ethics and morality, in order to illustrate how his work may not be altogether antithetical to the ecological and feminist aims at the heart of the ecofeminist project. It is my central contention that Kant can be reconciled with ecofeminism and that in spite of the necessarily limited nature of this reconciliation: it does help to provide us with a much needed and more sympathetic account of Kant’s relationship with both women and nature.