Family Pictures: A Philosopher Explores the Familiar (review)

Laura Duhan Kaplan's Family Pictures (1998) is a rich and bold attempt to integrate two modes of reflection—the theoretical and the autobiographical. Writing in a genre she calls "the personal philosophical essay," Kaplan examines concrete experiences such as passionate love, vacation habits, flea control (yes, flea control), wardrobe selection, family conflicts, the physical sensation of pain, caring for a newborn, and the ongoing burdens of caring for small children. Out of these reflections on everyday life, Kaplan theorizes a wide range of vital philosophical topics, including: spirituality as mediation between the earthly and the divine, epistemological frameworks and their relation to personal identity, constraints on the self-development of mothers, models of selfhood, moral development, and pacifism.

This highly accessible book does not sacrifice philosophical depth, and would make a useful addition to a variety of syllabi, with its lively treatment of many traditional questions in philosophy. For example, "My Father the Philosopher" considers physical pain and engagement with the body more generally as a crucial resource for moral development because of its potential to foster compassion for others. This is an important corrective to the narrow rationalism of a great deal of work in ethics. Rather than examining Kaplan's arguments on a range of topics, however, I am interested in assessing both the limits and the benefits of her methodology.

Work such as Kaplan's represents a daring and risky undertaking. By situating philosophical reflection in the conditions of her day-to-day existence as a mother, an adult daughter, and a married woman, Kaplan faces the charge from many nonfeminists of writing as a woman, not as a philosopher. Beyond the question of gender, such personal writing is often considered not merely outside the domain of philosophy but beneath it, as if it were incompatible with universal truth. Even within feminist circles, writing with autobiographical elements may be discouraged. A feminist philosophy professor might assign the work of bell hooks (1989) or other theorists who employ personal writing, yet still frown upon the use of autobiography in graduate students' seminar papers. Few feminist philosophers, and even fewer nonfeminist philosophers, write in this autobiographical mode. ¹ In most philosophy departments, one can easily get a graduate degree without learning of personal writing, let alone employing it.

At the same time, autobiography and situated reflection have become increasingly influential in feminist theory, particularly in the theorizing of race and sexuality. ² Although Kaplan's book does not attempt to participate in this theoretical project (an issue I take up later), its consideration of personal writing in philosophy is refreshing and long overdue.

For any reader interested in this topic, the most engaging aspect of this volume is surely Kaplan's articulation of the methods and goals of the personal philosophical essay:

After exploring the personal essay, I believe that such . . . writing carries the potential for discovering . . . moral and epistemological truth. . . . That truth is always changing, as the circumstances of our lives change. As that truth is embedded in the lives we live, the best way to expose it is to describe those lives, or better yet, to describe the guises that a life takes on as we try to understand it, impose a shape on it, point it in a particular direction. (1998, 116)

Kaplan believes, furthermore, that personal reflection provides a kind of "honesty" absent in more abstract writing. In an essay describing her and her husband's approaches to sightseeing during their honeymoon in Hawaii, Kaplan contrasts their distinct epistemological frameworks. She argues that these frameworks are a significant aspect of personal identity; thus, personal stories provide the context for philosophical theories. Integrating these stories into philosophical writing, then, can deepen our understanding of theories, while rendering them with greater integrity (1998, 26).

Kaplan acknowledges an aspect of this personal writing that is both a hazard and an opportunity: "It is also risky. . . . Stories often...