Abstract

Philosophy is strongly present and mobilized in the contemporary field of feminist theory. Inasmuch feminist theory has become plural, the tradition of philosophy acts in feminist theory in multiple different forms as well. My central thesis is that the field of contemporary feminist theory consists of mutually contested approaches, which each link themselves to different traditions in the history of philosophy. In relation to history of philosophy, I discern three clusters in contemporary feminist theorizing. First, there are those who develop feminist theory in relation to the tradition of phenomenological and existential philosophy. Second, there are those, whose theorizing of gender is inspired by Michel Foucault’s and also Jacques Derrida’s post-phenomenological work. Through Foucault and Derrida, a link is created to Friedrich Nietzsche. Thirdly, there are those who through Gilles Deleuze link even further back in time, to Baruch Spinoza’s ontology. These three philosophical approaches are extremely different with respect to each other, and primarily all three are completely different ways of relating to ontology. The paper explores these differences, and argues that feminist theory is not one theory, but a lively field of various competing and mutually contested theories. A particularly productive contestation is currently going on in between ontological approaches.