Symposium: Maternal thinking for international relations? Papers in honor of Sara Ruddick (original) (raw)

Journal of International Political Theory, 2014

Abstract

Sara Ruddick’s (1980) first work on “maternal thinking” was published in 1980. It is important to realize just how strange her ideas seemed to many people—including many feminists—at that time. Not only did she dare to suggest that the practices of mothering may give rise to a certain kind of moral thinking, she sought to turn that thinking to political use. In suggesting that mothers might contribute in distinctive ways to imagining or creating peace (Ruddick, 1995: xix), Ruddick was dismissed by philosophers, criticized by feminists and ignored by theorists of international politics. But she also set in motion waves of feminist research which would be inspired by her groundbreaking ideas on ethics, mothering, and peace. In honoring Sara Ruddick with a Distinguished Woman Philosopher Award from the Society of Women in Philosophy in 2002, Hilde Lindemann Nelson (2003) so described Ruddick’s contribution to philosophy: “Like a medieval sage in possession of the philosopher’s stone, Sally has taken the dishonored dross of the work of mothering and turned it into intellectual gold” (p. 85). The idea for this special symposium, and the International Studies Association conference panel from which it developed, emerged out of a shared conviction that Ruddick’s work represents “intellectual gold” for the practice and theory of international relations (IR) as well. While at first sight, and to the uncritical eye, a philosophy of “mothering” might seem antithetical to the “high politics” of IR, we argue that this simplistic assumption is mistaken. Contrary to widespread perception, Ruddick’s insights on mothering, violence, and peace are intensely political, and her arguments about the nature of morality and moral judgment represent an important alternative to dominant, rationalist approaches in the discipline. While we are pleased to

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