On Ecology and Aesthetic Experience: A Feminist Theory of Value and Praxis

My aim is to develop a feminist theory of value—an axiology—which unites two notions that seem to have little in common for a theorizing whose ultimate goal is justice–driven emancipatory action, namely, the ecological and the aesthetic. In this union lies the potential for a critical feminist political praxis capable of appreciating not only the value of human life, but those relationships upon which human and nonhuman life depend. A vital component of this praxis is, I argue, the potential for an aesthetic experience whose value is exemplified in those actions that tend to foster respect for biodicersity and ecological stability.