-
10. Notes on Contributors Notes on Contributors (p. 460)In Stephen Everson (ed.), Ethics: Companions to Ancient Thought, Vol. 4, Cambridge University Press. 1998.
-
3A philosophical indrocuction to constitutional interpretationIn Walter Sinnott-Armstrong & Susan J. Brison (eds.), Contemporary Perspectives on Constitutional Interpretation, Westview Press. pp. 1-25. 1993.
-
11Justice and Gender-Based ViolenceRevue Internationale de Philosophie 235 (1): 259-275. 2006.Although sexual violence against women is on-going and widespread, it is generally not, except in some cases of rape in war-time, viewed as a politically significant phenomenon constituting a grave group-based injustice. After examining why this is the case, Brison argues that one strategy to make salient the political dimension of sexual violence is to call rape "gender-based violence" rather than "sex without consent." Doing so takes rape out of the apolitical interpersonal realm and reclassif…Read more
-
37Free Speech in the Digital Age (edited book)Oup Usa. 2018.This collection of thirteen new essays is the first to examine, from a range of disciplinary perspectives, how the new technologies and global reach of the Internet are changing the theory and practice of free speech.
-
9Contemporary Perspectives on Constitutional Interpretation (edited book)Westview Press. 1993.Brings together ten of the nation's finest and most provocative legal scholars to present their views on constitutional interpretation. All of these papers are very recent, and four were written especially for this volume.
-
26Gender Struggles: Practical Approaches to Contemporary Feminism (edited book)Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2002.The sixteen essays in Gender Struggles address a wide range of issues in gender struggles, from the more familiar ones that, for the last thirty years, have been the mainstay of feminist scholarship, such as motherhood, beauty, and sexual violence, to new topics inspired by post-industrialization and multiculturalism, such as the welfare state, cyberspace, hate speech, and queer politics, and finally to topics that traditionally have not been seen as appropriate subjects for philosophizing, such…Read more
-
46Valuing the Lives of People with Profound Intellectual DisabilitiesPhilosophical Topics 49 (1): 99-121. 2021.Some prominent contemporary ethicists, including Peter Singer and Jeff McMahan, do not consider human beings with profound intellectual disabilities to have the same moral status as “normal” people. They hold that individuals who lack sufficiently sophisticated cognitive abilities have the same moral value as nonhuman animals with similar cognitive capacities, such as pigs or dogs. Their goal—to elevate the moral standing of sentient nonhuman animals—is an admirable one which I share. I argue, h…Read more
-
114Surviving Sexual Violence: A Philosophical PerspectiveIn Wanda Teays (ed.), Analyzing Violence Against Women, Springer. pp. 11-26. 2019.This chapter examines sexual assault from the point of view of a survivor, indicating that its consequences extend beyond the emotional or physical. Philosophical issues are raised by this experience, such as its effects on personal identity, notions of “harm“Notions of "harm", the role of denial, victim blaming, as well as its political implications for gender equality. Given the significance of these concerns and the extent of sexual assaults, it is imperative the harms of violence against wom…Read more
-
56Can we end the feminist ‘sex wars’ now? Comments on Linda Martín Alcoff, Rape and resistance: Understanding the complexities of sexual violationPhilosophical Studies 177 (2): 303-309. 2020.Feminist and queer theorists influenced by Michel Foucault have given analyses of sexual violence and of sexually violent pornography that are generally taken to be in striking opposition to those defended by radical feminists such as Catharine MacKinnon. In this commentary on Linda Martín Alcoff’s Rape and resistance: Understanding the complexities of sexual violation, I suggest that these seemingly divergent analyses of sexual violence are more similar than they have appeared to be and I ask: …Read more
-
86Speech, Harm, and the Mind-Body Problem in First Amendment JurisprudenceLegal Theory 4 (1): 39-61. 1998.“Sticks and stones will break my bones,” Justice Scalia pronounced from the bench in oral arguments in Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network, “but words can never hurt me. That's the First Amendment,” he added. Jay Alan Sekulow, the lawyer for the petitioners, anti-abortion protesters who had been enjoined from moving closer than fifteen feet away from those entering an abortion facility, was obviously pleased by this characterization of the right to free speech, replying, “That's certainly our position…Read more
-
64Aftermath: Violence and the Remaking of a SelfPrinceton University Press. 2002.On July 4, 1990, while on a morning walk in southern France, Susan Brison was attacked from behind, severely beaten, sexually assaulted, strangled to unconsciousness, and left for dead. She survived, but her world was destroyed. Her training as a philosopher could not help her make sense of things, and many of her fundamental assumptions about the nature of the self and the world it inhabits were shattered.At once a personal narrative of recovery and a philosophical exploration of trauma, this b…Read more
-
137Contentious Freedom: Sex Work and Social ConstructionHypatia 21 (4): 192-200. 2001.In this article, Brison extends the analysis of freedom developed in Nancy J Hirschmann's book, The Subject of Liberty: Toward a Feminist Theory of Freedom, to an area of controversy among feminist theorists: that of sex work, including prostitution and participation in the production of pornography. This topic raises some of the same issues concerning choice and consent as the three topics Hirschmann discusses in her book—domestic violence, the current welfare system in the United States, and I…Read more
-
115Contentious Freedom: Sex Work and Social ConstructionHypatia 21 (4): 192-200. 2006.In this article, Brison extends the analysis of freedom developed in Nancy J Hirschmann's book, The Subject of Liberty: Toward a Feminist Theory of Freedom, to an area of controversy among feminist theorists: that of sex work, including prostitution and participation in the production of pornography. This topic raises some of the same issues concerning choice and consent as the three topics Hirschmann discusses in her book—domestic violence, the current welfare system in the United States, and I…Read more
-
1Do We Think in Mentalese? A Critique of the "Language of Thought" HypothesisDissertation, University of Toronto (Canada). 1987.Arguments for the claim that we think in a distinct language of thought are common in the philosophical literature from Plato to the present. In this dissertation, I examine the philosophical foundations of this currently popular "Language of Thought" Hypothesis , evaluating both the empirical results and the a priori grounds that have been presented in support of it. After presenting an historical survey of philosophical motivations for LOT, I discuss a number of psychological experiments in th…Read more
-
16Relational autonomy and freedom of expressionIn Catriona Mackenzie & Natalie Stoljar (eds.), Relational Autonomy: Feminist Perspectives on Autonomy, Agency, and the Social Self, Oxford University Press. 2000.
-
49Beauvoir and feminism: interview and reflectionsIn Claudia Card (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Simone de Beauvoir, Cambridge University Press. pp. 189--207. 2003.
-
158Outliving Oneself: Trauma, memory and personal identityIn Diana T. Meyers (ed.), Feminists rethink the self, Westview Press. 1997.
-
150Aftermath: Violence and the Remaking of a SelfPrinceton University Press. 2002.Violence and the Remaking of a Self Susan J. Brison. Political activism (including lobbying for new legislation, speaking out, educating others, helping survivors) can also help to undo the double bind of self-blame versus helplessness.
Hanover, New Hampshire, United States of America
Areas of Interest
Applied Ethics |
Philosophy of Law |
Social and Political Philosophy |