Living by her laws
Jacqueline Pascal and women's autonomy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21603165 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Daniel Collette (0000-0003-0354-7098, Department of Philosophy Marquette University Marquette Wisconsin USA, corresponding author), Dwight K Lewis (0000-0002-2147-8201, Department of Philosophy University of Minnesota—Twin Cities Minneapolis Minnesota USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 32-48 |
| Publication date | 2024-03-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | European Journal of Philosophy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0966-8373 • E-ISSN: 1468-0378 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/ejop.12861 |
| OpenAlex | W4375843943 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 8 |
As a Catholic nun, to suggest Jacqueline Pascal as autonomous might at first glance seem contradictory. We show that her moral deference to the divine is not at all forfeiting her autonomy, but that aligning her own law with God's law is to align her own law with rationality itself, that is, the laws of nature. Her theoretical structure begins with a theory of virtue—viz., how and to whom we have an obligation to be moral. For her, acting in accordance with cultural restrictions or following church orders against her own conscience would be living by the laws of another and so not acting autonomously. Pascal would not live by other's laws, regardless of whether her actions conform to the categories by which society expected her to act. The framework for her laws laid in Pascal's understanding of self‐governance: if she wants to act virtuously then she must autonomously follow God's law by making it her own through the sentiments of her heart. Thus, she cannot live by the laws of men, but by the laws of her human nature and in alignment with a rightly ordered universe, that is, God's law, which we show parallels with a Stoic framework of autonomy
Autonomy · Conscience · Duty · Natural law · Obligation · Political science · Rationality · Sociology · Virtue · Law · Medieval Philosophy and Theology · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Religion, Gender, and Enlightenment
| Highly cited | No |
|---|