ABSTRACT
Genevieve lloyd, has recently argued that the various ideals of reason which have concerned Western philosophy have involved an exclusion of what have been taken to be feminine characteristics, and that the conception of what it is to be feminine has been in part constructed through this process of exclusion. The thesis that the modern world is characterised by a particular concept of rationality is associated with Max Weber. According to Weber, the development of modern Western civilisation has been a process—undoubtedly uneven and incomplete-of ‘rationalisation’. Individuals are rational in this sense if they select from the range of possible actions open to them that action which on the best evidence available is most likely to achieve a given end. In a capitalist society, the effective pursuit of profit through increased productivity is only possible where there is a corresponding increase in consumption.
