ABSTRACT
If Hume has been hailed as a friend of feminists, Kant has often been declared the enemy. Feminists have rejected his rationalist ethics as the antithesis of feminine caring. They have charged his “unity of apperception” with being a prototype for illegitimate masculine authority and Western hubris. They have condemned “pure” reason as the sovereignty of “rational man” over feminine connectiveness. Where Hume emphasized the sociability of custom and habit, Kant idealized a delusive individualism that severs human ties. Where Hume approved feeling as the basis of morality, Kant made emotion the downfall of virtue.
