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Introduction: Feminist Philosophy and the Nordic Situation

Feminist philosophy is still considered an oxymoron by many academics. Most philosophers take sex and gender to be non-philosophical issues (in essence or by nature). At best, the topics of sexual identity and sexual difference are accepted as belonging to the margins of philosophical anthropology, but excluded from the ‘‘core areas’’ of ontology, epistemology and political philosophy. At worst, the whole question of sexual relations is judged to be ‘‘merely empirical’’ or ‘‘merely practical’’ lacking theoretical depth and methodological significance. In women’s studies and feminist circles, philosophy is often seen as a relic of a hopelessly androcentric and patriarchal tradition. Sometimes feminist philosophy is claimed to have an auxiliary function of serving feminist inquiries in the fields of history, sociology, and political science by conceptual clarifications. Thus understood feminist philosophy could educate us about our analytic tools, but could not solve any of our actual problems. More antagonistically, philosophy is taken to be part of the problem that needs to be solved—or dissolved. This special issue on Feminist Philosophy challenges both types of preconception. First, it shows that our concepts of identity and difference have deep philosophical roots which nourish and direct contemporary feminist debates and theory building. Second, the articles of this issue demonstrate that philosophical self-understanding will remain a false promise as long as the gendered aspects of reason and sense remain unexplored. Feminist philosophy proves to be a core issue for both feminist theorists and for philosophers. During the last 10–15 years, feminist philosophy has reached a flourishing stage in the Nordic countries. This is due, on the one hand, to the Nordic tradition of philosophizing which combines Wittgensteinian, analytical, pragmatist and phenomenological interests and methods. The combination has allowed feminist philosophers to tackle central concepts, such as power, knowledge, and sexual difference, and to investigate them from different viewpoints. On the other hand, the