A new faculty forum sponsored by the Dartmouth Ethics Institute conducted its first monthly discussion about feminist ethical issues yesterday in Thornton Hall.
The purpose of the Feminist Ethics Study Group is to make faculty more aware of feminist applied and professional ethics, said Ron Green, director of the Ethics Institute.
Philosophy Professor Sally Sedgwick led last night's discussion, which focused on feminist philosophy. The group of 20 professors, administrators and local schoolteachers discussed Virginia Held's article "Non-Contractual Society: A Feminist View."
"I like the idea of a mixed group of people coming together to discuss these issues," Sedgwick said.
Green was the only man at the discussion but said there were two or three men who could not attend yesterday's meeting but were interested in the group.
Green said he hopes the group will evolve into a university seminar, a course that is exclusively designed for faculty development.
He said the group will eventually try to "foster our research in teaching" by having the faculty participants present their own scholarly papers on the subject.
The increase in research may eventually lead to more undergraduate courses on feminist ethics, Green said.
"We want to pick up issues that are of interest to faculty and that the faculty has to think about more. We're not addressing this issue in any aspect of the College now," Green said.
"Most of the faculty are not up to speed on [feminist perspectives]. The fact that there are feminist legal, business and medical ethics means that we should pay attention to it," Green said.
Sedgwick said she saw a particular lacking in feminist understanding in the philosophy department.
"In philosophy, feminism is only beginning to have input. Philosophy tends to lag behind other areas like literature, sociology or even history," Sedgwick said.
Yesterday's meeting focused on the contrast between Held's view and that of most Western male philosophers. Held's article said that it is possible to evaluate human relationships in non-contractual terms while traditional Western philosophy evolves out of the establishment of social contracts in society.
"She provides an alternate way of looking at human relationships," Sedgwick said.
Sedgwick said she thought the first meeting was successful.
"Given that we were such a mixed group, I was glad that the article that I had selected got a fairly enthusiastic response - or at least inspired discussion," she said.
