Book Notes

Feminist Politics: Identity, Difference, and Agency. Edited by Deborah Orr, Dianna Taylor, Eileen Kahl, Kathleen Earle, Christa Rainwater, and Linda López McAlister. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007.

Drawing from various international perspectives, the essays in this collection examine identity and difference, looking at the functions of these concepts in feminist political discourse and praxis. Specifically, “the authors of these essays have worked to develop new ways of understanding and living out our differences that will both preserve and celebrate them while at the same time fostering the necessary conditions for opening dialogue and form new coalitions” (13). While this book is divided into two sections—“Part I. Reconceptualizing Challenges to entrenched Political Divides” and “Part II. Putting Identity Back into Politics”—the editors caution us that this division is somewhat misleading because “most of the chapters in this volume could easily be shifted from one part to the other because, whether they do so explicitly or implicitly, they deal with both sides of that [personal/political] binarism” (4). Although the focus of these essays in on women, the issues raised are important to all, especially in the context of the world the Bush administration has created. Contributors are Amy R. Baehr, Alison Bailey, Cathryn Bailey, Marie-Claire Belleau, Sigal Ben-Porath, Marlene Benjamin, Marla Brettschneider, Morwenna Griffiths, Birge krondorfer, Linda López McAlister, Majorie C. Miller, Deborah Orr, Diana Taylor, and Jutta Weber.

The Philosophy of Sex: Contemporary Readings. 5th ed. Edited by Alan Soble and Nicholas Power. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007.

This fifth edition of The Philosophy of Sex contains thirty contemporary essays that examine a variety of topics in the philosophy of sex including causal sex, rape, pornography, prostitution, same-sex marriage, pedophilia, masturbation, cybersex, and sexual objectification. The book is divided into four parts: Analysis and Perversion; Homosexuality and Reproduction; Use, objectification, and Consent—the theory; and Use, objectification, and Consent—Applied topics. New to this edition are summaries and discussion questions for each essay. Also, the bibliography has been expanded by nearly one hundred percent. Lastly, this edition includes new contributions from David Benatar, Raja Halwani, Eva Feder Kittay, Stanley Kurtz, Jerome Neu, Martha Nussbaum, and Pope John Paul II. The remaining contributors are Cheshire Calhoun, Greta Christina, Louise Colline, John Corvino, Yolanda Estes, John Finnis, Deirdre Golash, Alan Goldman, Christopher Hamilton, Howard Klepper, Andrew Koppelman, Thomas Mappes, Joan Mason-Grant, Janice Moulton, Thomas Nagel, Alan Soble, Sallie Tisdale, Alan Wertheimer, and Robin West.

Wittgenstein and the Moral Life: Essays in Honor of Cora Diamond. Edited by Alice Crary. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2007.

As the title suggests, this collection is dedicated to Cora Diamond’s work on Wittgenstein and moral philosophy. As such, it book consists of two parts. In the first part, contributors James Conant, David H. Finkelstein, Juliet Floyd, Michael Kramer, and Hilary Putnam explore and further develop Diamond’s work on both Wittgenstein’s early and later thought. The second part focuses on Diamond’s moral philosophy, specifically her ideas on philosophy of literature, animals, and ethics, and her concept of “the difficulty of reality.” It has essays by Stanley Cavell, Alice Crary, Sabina Lovibond, John McDowell, Stephen Mulhall, and Martha Nussbaum. Together, these essays “explore groundbreaking interpretations of Wittgenstein’s philosophy and attempt to demonstrate its significance for ethics, using Diamond’s writings on these topics as a springboard and inspiration.”