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| Virginia Held | |
|---|---|
| Name | Virginia Held |
| Birth date | 1929 |
| Birth place | New York City, New York, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Philosopher |
| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| Institutions | Columbia University; Brooklyn College; Barnard College; Hunter College; City University of New York |
| Notable works | Ethics of Care; The Ethics of Care: Personal, Political, and Global; Feminist Morality |
| Influences | Carol Gilligan; Nel Noddings; Simone de Beauvoir; John Rawls; Martha Nussbaum |
Virginia Held is an American philosopher known for pioneering work in moral and political philosophy, particularly the ethics of care and feminist theory. Her scholarship integrates normative theory with analyses of social practices, institutions, and public policy, engaging debates in Anglo-American philosophy and feminist thought. Held has taught at several major institutions and produced influential essays and books that have shaped discussions in ethics, political theory, and applied philosophy.
Born in New York City, Held completed undergraduate and graduate studies that positioned her within mid-20th century analytic and feminist circles. She studied at Swarthmore College and earned advanced degrees at Columbia University, where she came into contact with scholars associated with Pragmatism, Analytic philosophy, and figures linked to institutional debates at American Philosophical Association. Her formative years intersected with intellectual movements around Second-wave feminism, the work of Simone de Beauvoir, and contemporaneous developments at Radcliffe College and Barnard College.
Held joined the faculty at institutions including Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and Barnard College, later holding positions at Columbia University and affiliating with research centers connected to The New School and other urban universities. She participated in conferences organized by the American Philosophical Association and contributed to edited volumes alongside scholars from Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, and Oxford University. Held served on editorial boards of journals such as Ethics (journal), Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, and venues linked to the Society for Women in Philosophy and the American Political Science Association.
Held developed a distinctive account of the ethics of care that contrasted with dominant accounts by figures like John Rawls, Immanuel Kant, and consequentialists influenced by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. Drawing on the work of Carol Gilligan and Nel Noddings, she argued that care, responsibility, and interdependence are central moral concepts, engaging debates with scholars from Martha Nussbaum to Susan Okin. Held situated care ethics in relation to institutions such as welfare state-era policies, debates exemplified by cases addressed in United States Supreme Court jurisprudence and policy discussions at agencies like the United Nations and World Health Organization. Her approach interrogated assumptions in liberal political theory associated with Liberalism as articulated in works from John Locke through John Rawls and contemporary critics in feminist political theory.
Held's major books include The Ethics of Care: Personal, Political, and Global and influential essays collected across volumes published by presses tied to Princeton University Press, Oxford University Press, and Cambridge University Press. She addressed moral psychology debates influenced by Sigmund Freud and Lawrence Kohlberg, while engaging analytic questions raised by philosophers such as G. E. M. Anscombe and contemporary ethicists at Rutgers University and University of Chicago. Held contributed to applied ethics in areas ranging from bioethics discussions at National Institutes of Health-sponsored forums to humanitarian policy debates linked to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Her scholarship reframed discussions on caregiving labor in contexts tied to legislation like the Family and Medical Leave Act and policy initiatives considered by the United Nations Development Programme.
Held's work has been cited and discussed by scholars across institutions including Harvard University, Yale University, Oxford University, University of California, Berkeley, and London School of Economics. She received fellowships and honors from foundations such as the National Endowment for the Humanities and participated in symposia hosted by the Social Science Research Council and the MacArthur Foundation. Her influence extends to curricular reforms in feminist philosophy programs at places like Smith College, Wellesley College, and graduate seminars at Columbia University and New York University, and her ideas inform policy discussions at organizations including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and various United Nations agencies.
Category:American philosophers Category:Feminist philosophers Category:Ethicists