Erin McCarthy

A List
8/2/10

New Book By SLU Philosophy Prof Explores Views Of Selfhood, Ethics & The Body

CANTON - Ethics Embodied, a new book by St. Lawrence University Associate Professor of Philosophy Erin McCarthy, explores the importance of the body to ethical selfhood. Employing a comparative feminist approach to ethics, McCarthy offers a critical comparison that illuminates complexities in Continental, Japanese and Feminist philosophies. The book, published by Lexington Books, will be released August 16.

The publishers state, "While the body has been largely neglected in much of traditional Western philosophy, there is a rich tradition of Japanese philosophy in which this is not the case. Ethics Embodied explains how Japanese philosophy includes the body as an integral part of selfhood and ethics and shows how it provides an alternative and challenge to the traditional Western philosophical view of self and ethics. Through a comparative feminist approach, the book articulates the striking similarities that exist between certain strands of Japanese philosophy and feminist philosophy concerning selfhood, ethics and the body. Despite the similarities, McCarthy argues that there are significant differences between these philosophies and that each reveals important limitations of the other. With keen analysis and constructive comparison, this book will be accessible for students and scholars familiar with the Western philosophical tradition, while still adding a more global perspective."

James Heisig, research fellow of the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, states of the book, "McCarthy writes with a clarity that shows how deeply she has thought about, and cared about, the encounter of Western feminist thinking with Japanese philosophy. Not only has she made difficult texts accessible to the general reader, she has succeeded in making them relevant to an important range of contemporary ethical questions."

A past chair of the Board of Directors of ASIANetwork, a consortium of over 170 North American colleges and universities, McCarthy earned her bachelor's degree in French and philosophy from Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, and the Ph.D. from the University of Ottawa. Since joining the faculty in 2000, she has directed an international program that brings students to French-speaking communities in Canada, France and Senegal; taught in a three-week summer program in Japan; and organized a community-based learning course in Senegal, Africa. In 2008, McCarthy was awarded a fellowship from the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation Residential Fellowship Program for Buddhist Studies and American Culture and Values, allowing her to spend a semester at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado.

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Erin McCarthy's biography