Mihaela Miroiu
Title: “All Mortals Are Born Ethics Through the Eyes of Women’s Experiences”
Abstract: In canonical philosophy, women’s biological particularities (pregnancy, giving birth, lactation) were treated as deficiencies: biology brings them closer to nature than to spirit. In my view these kinds of experiences are a perspectival advantage that leads to relevant philosophical insights for moral philosophy. All human/beings are born is as universal as All human/beings are mortal. These universals have inspired the ethics of rights and the ethics of care. My proposal is Convenience theory. It is an attempt to overcome the tensions between the ethical constructions based on reason or empathy. One of the advantages of convenience is that, on the one hand, it can be extended as an ethical approach of intergenerational justice, and on the other hand, it extends empathy in relation to the biotic community, not just the human one. Therefore, it includes also non-human beings as moral subjects.
Bio: Mihaela Miroiu is a member of the Academia Europaea since 2022. She was professor of Political Sciences in the Political Science Faculty at the National School for Political Studies and Public Administration (NSPSA), Bucharest, Romania. She initiated the first Ph.D. program in Political Science in Romania in 2000, the academic classes in Feminist Theories (1994) and the first MA program in Gender Studies (1998). Her research area encompasses the fields of feminist ethics, political theory, feminist political theories, and political ethics, post-communist transition, and gender and politics. She is also a writer. She is the author of 14 books. Among them are Thoughts of the Shadow: Feminist Approaches in Contemporary Philosophy (1995), Convenio. On Nature, Women and Morals (1996); Backward-Looking Society, (1999); Guidelines for Promoting Equity in Higher Education, (2003), The Road to Autonomy: Feminist Political Theories (2004); Priceless Women (2006) and Beyond Angels and Devils: Ethics in the Romanian Politics (2007), The Birth of Democratic Citizenship. Women and Power in Modern Romania (2017, co-author with Maria Bucur), Wings and Roots (2022). She edited and co-edited other 10 books, the most of them on feminism, including a Feminist Lexicon (2002), Feminist and Ecologist Movements in Romania (2015). She has received the first National Price for her public activity against discrimination and equal opportunities (2005). Mihaela Miroiu was awarded with: Women Inspiring Europe, European Institute for Gender Equality, 2010, Outstanding Achievements Award, Association for Women in Slavic Studies Eurasian and East European Studies (AWSS) 2010, PEN Prize the Writer of the Year, 2023. She is playing a very active public role as feminist and political analyst in the Romanian civil society, mass-media, and social networks.
Affiliation: Political Science National School, Bucharest, Romania
