Feminism and Intercultural Information Ethics

Rafael Capurro calls for an intercultural information ethics that radically challenges its Eurocentric, Greek philosophical roots and grapples with and validates cultural diversity. One of the voices that must be included in this project is that of feminism, both within and outside of Western culture. While there are a variety of feminist issues and approaches to feminism, embracing the naturalistic approach, suggested by Alison Jaggar, one can find sufficient commonalities, both in terms of a critique of traditional male-dominated Western ethics and in terms of a positive content and agenda, to establish a feminist framework. One strong voice that help create this framework is that of Carol Gilligan who studied the moral development of women. This paper argues that the “different voice” thesis of Gilligan (i.e., that men and women prototypically – not stereotypically – bring different voices to moral argumentation and ethical deliberation) can serve as an ethical principle, that permits all persons – male or female – to interrogate and guide their ethical choices, and that an ‘ethic of care’ can challenge an ‘ethic of rights,’ and on occasion can trump it as a major guiding ethical principle.