Online research in philosophy

: This introductory essay argues that it is a mistake to represent Australian feminist philosophy as a kind of discourse theory that is "downstream" of the French post-structuralists or North American postmodernists. Starting with the local--and the specifically Australian modes of racial exclusion, in particular--and exploring some of the byways of philosophy, what we encounter is a range of ontological, ethical, and political models that allow a reconfiguration of self, community, and social change.

Christine Battersby rethinks questions of embodiment, essence, sameness and difference, self and "other", patriarchy and power. Using analyses of Kant, Adorno, Irigaray, Butler, Kierkegaard and Deleuze, she challenges those who argue that a feminist metaphysics is a a contradiction in terms. This book explores place for a metaphysics of fluidity in the current debates concerning postmodernism, feminism and identity politics.