| Popis: |
In this dissertation, I argue that people who are oppressed have an obligation to resist their own oppression. While this argument is intended to hold for all people who are oppressed, I focus specifically on the obligation that women have to resist sexist oppression. I argue that this obligation is an instance of a larger species of obligation: to respect and protect some morally important feature or features of persons. In particular, I argue that Kant’s notion of humanity captures these morally important features of persons and that his arguments for the claim that humanity must be respected can be used to show that there is an obligation to protect one’s rational nature. I give an account of how oppression can harm people’s rational nature and show how resisting oppression is an instance of fulfilling the obligation to respect and protect one’s rational nature. And I emphasize how the obligation to protect rational nature applies in a special way to one’s own rational nature and thus that the obligation to resist one’s oppression is an obligation to the self. |
