Monika Kirloskar-Steinbach

Bio: Monika Kirloskar-Steinbach is an academic researcher from University of Konstanz. The author has contributed to research in topics: Conversation & Context (archaeology). The author has an hindex of 4, co-authored 13 publications receiving 113 citations. Previous affiliations of Monika Kirloskar-Steinbach include Emory University.

Introducing Confluence: A Thematic Essay

Abstract: In the following thematic introduction, we seek to situate Confluence within the field of comparative philosophy and substantiate why we deem a new publication necessary. For this purpose, we reconstruct the salient stages in the development of comparative philosophy in Section I, and then proceed to expound the rationale underlying Confluence in Section II. Our reconstruction of these stages pursues an exploratory rather than a documentary approach.

Diversifying philosophy: The art of non-domination*

Abstract: Using the example of cross-cultural philosophy’s relation to disciplinary philosophy, this article seeks to think through some of the issues relevant to diversifying philosophy as an academ...

National Identity: Belonging to a Cultural Group? Belonging to a Polity

Abstract: In this paper, I began by examining national identity understood as cultural belonging. I tried to show that this kind of belonging fails to give a justifiable account of the pluralistic reality found in modern states. I then proceeded to examine the idea of belonging to a polity. My claim is that this sense of belonging is more suitable for nation-states that have multicultural societies and consider this plurality as a vital part of their national identity. If the arguments presented here are convincing, we will have to stop thinking of national belonging as belonging to a cultural group, and pay more attention to belonging to a polity and all that that entails.

The End of the Dream: Postmodernism and Qualitative Research:

Abstract: This article revisits the use of postmodernist theory in qualitative research in education and related fields, where such ideas remain consigned to the “fringe”—or worse. What are the grounds for t...

The Ethics of Care: Personal, Political, and Global

Abstract: The Ethics of Care: Personal, Political, and Global. By Virginia Held. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. 220p. $45. In her latest book, Virginia Held elaborates on themes from previously published articles to explicate and defend the ethics of care. For those unfamiliar with this well-developed tendency of feminist thought, she reviews its evolution from the 1980s writings of Sara Ruddick, Carol Gilligan, and Nel Noddings to the more recent work of theorists including, among many others, Eva Kittay, Annette Baier, Joan Tronto, and Selma Sevenhuijsen. Held also underlines the differences between the ethics of care and dominant moral and political perspectives, including Kantian universalism, utilitarianism, liberal contract theory, and virtue theory. She proposes that care is, compared with justice, the more basic value, on the grounds that society can exist without the latter but not without the former. She recommends that men and women participate equally in care activities; that care infuse citizen as well as familial relations; and that society beat back the imperializing thrust of the market ethos and the conflict-mongering thrust of the militarized state to improve the well-being of children, the elderly, the sick and disabled, the community, culture, the environment, and deprived regions of the world.

Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity

Abstract: Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity. Roy A. Rappaport. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.536 pp.

Critique of Judgment

Abstract: A study of Kant’s Critique of Judgment (1790). Our topics will include Kant’s motivations for a critique of judgment; principles of ‘reflective’ and ‘determining’ judgment; theory of aesthetic judgment, including epistemology and metaphysics of the beautiful and sublime; theory of genius; teleology in the critical philosophy—including harmony of the cognitive faculties, organisms, scope and limits of mechanical explanation, physicoand ethico-theology; the relation of ethics, aesthetics and teleology. A basic familiarity with Kant’s theoretical philosophy is presupposed.

Starting at Home: Caring and Social Policy

Abstract: Starting at Home: Caring and Social Policy. Nel Noddings. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. 2002. 342 pp. ISBN 0-52022556-2. $19.95 (paperback). Nel Noddings `starts at home' to develop an ethic of care to guide how social policies should cope with social problems. Beautifully and clearly written, she engages an extensive literature on ethics and care to challenge conventional scholarly work on the family and state. Philosophers have long thought it important to first envision an ideal state and then look to how families could support that state. In contrast, Noddings starts with ideal families and then looks to how the state can support those families. The result is her emphasis on an ethic of care, which underscores needs, as opposed to an ethic of justice, which more common to traditional liberal thought, underscores rights. The first section articulates a carefully thought out theory of care. First, she establishes that an ethic of care must `prevent or alleviate harm to others and to oneself' as well as responds to both the expressed and inferred needs of others. She critiques the liberal rational individual by emphasizing coercion can be necessary to meet inferred needs, such as preventing individuals from harming themselves. Moreover, in an insightful critique of liberalism's focus on `rights,' she argues that rights must be based on needs. Thus needs must be understood before rights can be established. Finally, she develops the concept of a relational self that beautifully challenges the liberal concept of a rational individual by emphasizing interdependence over autonomy. The concept of relational selves leads to the next section, which sets policy guidelines by establishing how `strong selves' are developed in `ideal homes.' Basic needs like shelter and adequate material resources are integral to all `ideal homes.' Further, careers must never inflict unnecessary pain and must attempt to remove or alleviate pain. In regard to shaping behavior, she makes a distinction between positive and negative desert. With negative desert pain is deliberately used to discourage unwanted behavior. Instead, she argues for positive desert, which structures positive incentives for acceptable behavior. In the final section she draws on lessons learned from ideal homes to inform policy approaches to three specific social problems: homelessness, deviance, and education. Homelessness is an expressed need that must be eradicated because a home is both a basic need and a part of one's identity. Deviance, in contrast, is an inferred need. Policies aimed at punishing deviance should be reconceptualized to meet the concept of positive desert. For example, instead of maintaining what is increasingly a destructive drug policy, policies should address the social problems that lead to problematic drug use. Finally, she argues education policy can both improve home life and make society more caring by educating for both private and public life. …