Feminist Cosmology

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Feminist Cosmology


Feminist cosmology is both a critical and constructive model of the cosmos. Feminists criticize the mechanistic, dualistic, patriarchal model of the cosmos informed by Enlightenment philosophy and modern science. This dominant model creates hierarchical dualisms: human over nature, mind over body, male over female, subject over object. The subjugation of nature is linked to the subjugation of women. Feminist cosmologies restructure these pairs, like nature and humans, as intimately and interdependently related to each other in a web of moral responsibility. Ecofeminists lead the charge in developing a cosmology that not only reconstructs a new world view, but also calls for radical change in the way that humans live with the natural world.

See also Cosmology, Religious and Philosophical Aspects; Ecofeminism; Feminisms and Science; Feminist Theology; Womanist Theology


Bibliography

howell, nancy r. a feminist cosmology: ecology, solidarity, and metaphysics. amherst, n.y.: prometheus, 2000.

ann pederson

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