Cuomo, Chris, "So As to Flourish: The Goals of Ecological Feminism" in Feminism and Ecological Communities: An Ethic of Flourishing, pp. 62-80 available on e-reserve
Overall Discussion Questions for Cuomo and Warren
1. What struck you as most interesting or puzzling about each piece? How would you summarize each in five or six sentences per reading?
2. How would you compare and contrast the key points Warren and Cuomo make? How are their conceptions of ethics, of feminism, of ecofeminism similar and different?
3. What similarities and differences do you see between the approaches of Warren and Cuomo and those of other authors we have read this semester?
4. What strike you as key strengths and key weaknesses of each piece?
5. Given these two pieces, does it seem necessary to you that environmentalists be feminists and that feminists be environmentalists?
Reading Guide to the Specifics of Cuomo's Chapter
Introduction
1. Cuomo outlines what she will cover in the chapter in the first paragraph on page 62. She packs a lot into that paragraph. As you read the chapter, look for what she means by: a) ecofeminist thought, b) moral objects, and c) fixed or dualistic understandings of nature and culture. Why does she think feminism and ecofeminism have rejected oppression and degradation? She writes: "This chapter is an attempt to articulate an ecological feminist conception of flourishing in more positive terms, and to discuss its usefulness as an ethical starting point which can avoid reliance on fixed or dualistic understanding of nature and culture." (62) Ultimately, to understand what she means by flourishing is key. Provisionally, however, what do you think she means by "in more positive terms"? Do you think it is possible to embrace an overarching concept of flourishing or well-being to embrace individuals, species, and communities? (Think here of Callicott's notion of nested communities or Rolston's treatment of higher animals, organisms, species, ecosystems, and life on earth.) Why would she want to avoid relying on a fixed or dualistic understanding of nature and culture?
Why Flourishing
2. According to Cuomo in paragraph one on p. 63, what are the three claims/premises on which ecological feminism rests? Why can these lead ecological feminism to get bogged down at times? Why does she want to consider positive goals?
3. In paragraph two on p. 63 Cuomo holds ecological feminism "demands much from a basic ethical conception of the good." This includes applicability to a variety of "entities", naturalism, and that it not be teleological. What does each of these mean and why should they be required?
4. In the third paragraph on p. 63 finishing on 64, Cuomo says "ethics implies human flourishing", we should prefer as much human flourishing as possible, and that human flourishing requires the well-being of nature? She outlines what belongs to the "moral universe". She also writes, "Ethics that being with flourishing capture the sense in which instrumental and noninstrumental value are often enmeshed." (64) This is a lot in a short space although she develops these ideas on pp. 64-65 . What does Cuomo use the example of the marsh on the edge of a city to illustrate on p. 64? How does she use Kant's distinction between means and ends? (64-65). The example of native communities on p. 65? Are you convinced of the points in this section?
Flourishing in Aristotle's Ethics
5. Has Cuomo done a good job of summarizing Aristotle's discussion of eudaimonia (essentially in Bk 2 of the Nicomachean Ethics)? Which of Aristotle's assumptions does Cuomo find questionable? What is the point of her discussion of the musician analogy? What does she want to adapt from Aristotle's discussion of flourishing for her own purposes? How does she take off on his understanding of the political on p. 69?
Flourishing and Dynamic Charm (69-77)
6. What constitutes her working conception of flourishing? What does she borrow from Varner's use of Schopenhauer? From Moline's analysis of Leopold? What are key elements of moral considerability?
7. What is "dynamic charm"? (69-71) She holds that dynamic charm is "ethically significant" for three reasons. Entities with dynamic charm: 1)"are entities upon which moral agents depend (socially and biologically) for their own flourishing and survival"; 2) can be harmed, dominated, and respected; 3) "evoke moral responses". (72) What about this is helpful for environmental ethics? Is problematic?
8. Why does she take Leopold's key principle and focus on integrity, stability, and beauty? (72-73) What are the relevant common features of human and non-human communities that she details in the last paragraph of this section (73)?
9. As a subset of this section of the chapter, Cuomo covers a number of descriptors of what she takes flourishing to be. What are the key points in each of the following subheadings: Flourishing Occurs in Bodies (73), Flourishing Occurs in Process (74), Flourishing is achievable by individuals only in communities (74), Flourishing is achievable by individuals as well as aggregates (74-75), Flourishing requires good consequences and good persons (75), Flourishing requires integrity and 'self'-directedness (75-76), The flourishing of moral agents requires the flourishing of moral objects (76-77)?
Potential Worries (77-78)
10. What are the objections Cuomo posits and how does she respond to them? Are her responses adequate? Can you think of other likely objections she doesn't cover?
Human Flourishing (78-80)
11. How does flourishing relate to virtue ethics? Why and how is it contingent, contextual, and ecologically sensitive with a broad and complex anthropology (conception of what it means to be human)?