Making the Case : Feminist and Critical Race Philosophers Engage Case Studies

Analyzes the value of using case-based methodologies to address contemporary social justice issues in philosophy.

Making the Case brings together established and emerging philosophers who use case studies to address a variety of contemporary social justice causes. The contributors show both the depth and breadth of work in this area and highlight the distinctive approaches that feminist and critical race theorists, in particular, have pursued. For these theorists, the choice of the kinds of cases analyzed matters, not only pushing philosophy as a field to foreground the challenges facing marginalized groups but also affecting the kind of philosophy that results. This ensures that their theories do not reproduce the conceptual frameworks of dominant groups. By using thickly described cases, as opposed to the thinly described or hypothetical situations that have been the historic mainstay of philosophy, the contributors strive to create philosophy that never strays too far from the complexities of people's lives on the ground. The book provides philosophers with a host of methodologies, theories, and practical examples for use in social justice case work, with topics ranging from census design and gender bias in science to incarceration and the spate of recent police killings of black men and women.

Heidi Grasswick is the George Nye and Anne Walker Boardman Professor of Mental and Moral Science at Middlebury College and the editor of Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science: Power in Knowledge. Nancy Arden McHugh is Professor and Chair of Philosophy at Wittenberg University and is the author of Feminist Philosophies A–Z and The Limits of Knowledge: Generating Pragmatist Feminist Cases for Situated Knowing, published by SUNY Press.