1001Philosophers

Virginia Held b. 1929

Virginia Held (born 1929) is an American philosopher of the Contemporary era, associated with Feminism and Political Philosophy.

Virginia Held is an American moral and political philosopher, distinguished professor emerita at the City University of New York Graduate Center, and one of the leading philosophical defenders of the ethics of care. The Ethics of Care: Personal, Political, and Global gave the most systematic philosophical statement of care ethics, arguing that the practice of caring relationships, and not the impersonal calculation of utility or the abstraction of universal principles, is the deepest source of moral knowledge. How Terrorism Is Wrong applied her care framework to the ethics of political violence, while her earlier Rights and Goods set out her foundational arguments for a feminist normative philosophy.

Key facts

Nationality
American
Era
Contemporary
Movements
Feminism, Political Philosophy

Selected quotes

  • Attributed to Virginia Held:

    “Care is not the opposite of justice; care is the practice from which justice grows.”

  • Attributed to Virginia Held:

    “We were all dependent before we became autonomous; the ethical life remembers this.”

  • Attributed to Virginia Held:

    “Moral theory begins not in the imagined contract among equals but in the actual care of bodies.”

  • Attributed to Virginia Held:

    “Political philosophy that ignores caregiving misses half of what holds a society together.”

  • Attributed to Virginia Held:

    “Universal principles are tools; loving attention is the hand that uses them.”

Read all Virginia Held quotes

Frequently asked about Virginia Held

When was Virginia Held born?
Virginia Held was born in 1929.
Where was Virginia Held from?
Virginia Held is an American philosopher of the Contemporary era.
What philosophical movements is Virginia Held associated with?
Virginia Held is associated with Feminism and Political Philosophy.
What is Virginia Held known for?
Virginia Held is an American moral and political philosopher, distinguished professor emerita at the City University of New York Graduate Center, and one of the leading philosophical defenders of the ethics of care.
How many quotes are attributed to Virginia Held?
There are 10 attributed quotations from Virginia Held in the 1001Philosophers collection, organized by topic.