Reinventing the Mother

Speaker: Kanchana Mahadevan

July 23, 2004 | 6.30 pm
Little Theatre, National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai

Dr. Kanchana Mahadevan is a Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, University of Mumbai. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Georgia, U.S.A., titled, “Habermas’s Communicative Ethics: An Evaluation.” and has presented papers in various seminars. She has also published articles in journals on Continental Philosophy, Epistemology, Feminist Philosophy and Philosophy of Education. Her areas of interest include Phenomenology, Existentialism, Post-structuralism, Critical Theory, and Social-Political Philosophy.

“…she is undoubtedly a mother,…the role was assigned to her by mythologies a long time ago.”
– Luce Irigaray.

This presentation attempts to discuss the significance of feminist philosophy with special reference to the theme ‘mother’. There is a widespread tendency to confine feminist concerns to social or political practice and blunt its philosophical impact. This attitude emerges from the prestige conferred by the philosophical canon to the thinker who contemplates ‘Reality’ in a state of disembodiment and singularity. But, as Luce Irigaray maintains, the thinker is hardly gender-neutral. Plato, for instance, defines philosophy as preparation towards death. Thus, the traditional thinker is for most part male and attains his contemplative flights by relinquishing the earth, or the maternal ground, responsible for his existence. Given these assumptions that underlie thought, one can hardly dismiss the case for feminist philosophy. Hence, the presentation will conclude by exploring new directions for a philosophy with a feminist sensibility. Such an undertaking has the task of foregrounding the maternal in its cognitive, ethical and existential aspects. This in turn involves reinterpreting the mother figure in non-patriarchal ways that matter to both men and women.