APA Member Interview: Virginia Held

by Sabrina D. MisirHiralall

Virginia Held is a professor emerita of philosophy at the City University of New York, Graduate School and Hunter College. Among her books are How Terrorism is Wrong: Morality and Political Violence; The Ethics of Care: Personal, Political, and Global; Feminist Morality: Transforming Culture, Society, and Politics; Rights and Goods: Justifying Social Action; and The Public Interest and Individual Interests. She has 5 grandchildren.

What excites you about philosophy?   

Philosophy is about our most fundamental assumptions about everything: How should we live our lives? How should society be organized? What is really valuable? What’s real? How can we know anything? And so on. How can anyone NOT be excited by such questions?

And then when we come to understand what our assumptions have been, we can often come to see how questionable they are and how they ought to be replaced. And then, using better assumptions can change what we think about almost everything built on them.

For instance, in my area of social and political philosophy, we have come to see in recent years how most of our standard ideas about how society is and ought to be organized rest on assumptions about what hypothetical, relatively self-sufficient, adult males might rationally agree to in the way of basic norms. If, instead, we include women and children in the picture, and recognize that no one is self-sufficient, that everyone needs care, at least in childhood, everything changes. Instead of a society geared to serving individual interests through market exchanges, tempered by legal restraints, we might aim at a society geared to assuring, first of all, that the needs of children and others for care are satisfactorily met. We might understand the importance of relations between people, relations such as of trust and mutual consideration, and not only or primarily what is in the interests of persons as individuals.

Of course there will continue to be conflicts of interest, but we could progress toward more promotion of mutuality and less conflict, especially less conflict that leads to violence and misery. And we might structure our societies to be far more cooperative and far less conflict-ridden than they are.

In recent years I have been interested especially in the ethics of care, a new approach to moral issues that challenges the dominant moral theories of Kantian ethics, utilitarianism, and Aristotelian virtue theory. It’s the first really new way of thinking about morality since utilitarianism was developed in the 19^thcentury. It understands the values incorporated into practices of care, values such as responding to needs, effectively and with empathetic sensitivity, and values such as the building of trust. It generalizes these values rather than those of the traditional theories.  Since it is built on experience, it has no need for the religious foundations that are so often divisive. And since it is based off of experience that really is universal, since every person everywhere has been cared for and can reflect on the values involved, everyone can contribute to a better understanding of how actual practices of care should be improved and how care values should be extended.

In recent years I have been looking at the implications of care ethics for international affairs, for reducing violence and global poverty, and for conceptualizing society, among other questions. I think these issues are very exciting, which is why I keep looking into them at my advanced age.

What are you working on right now?

At the moment I’m thinking and writing about what an economy based on the ethics of care might look like.

Socialism isn’t dead, despite what some say, but it’s moribund. Capitalism in its current forms is clearly unacceptable from a moral point of view. It is producing less and less economic security, especially in the large and growing gig economy sectors, for workers and families who need it and should be able to expect a reasonable amount of it. It is destroying the common environment on which we all depend, and threatening the futures of our children and grandchildren.  It is promoting more corporate concentration into monopolies and vaster spreads between the few excessively wealthy and the very many who are struggling economically. It pays no attention to the intrinsic satisfaction possible in the human capacity to labor.  And it is distorting and corrupting political institutions and outcomes.

What topic do you think is underexplored in philosophy?

I think the question I’m working on now is underexplored: What kind of economy ought we to be aiming at? Further and further refinements of social contract thinking contribute rather little to the kind of new thinking about societies and the world that we need.

We also should have, I think, more good philosophical discussion of environmental issues, some of which are very tricky.

If a crystal ball could tell you the truth about yourself, your life, the future, or anything else, what would you want to know?

I’m very curious about the future that I won’t be around to see: will humanity pull itself together enough to avoid the catastrophic effects of climate change and environmental disaster? Will human civilization even survive?

What’s your favorite quote?

Maybe Hobbes’ ringing claim:  “So that in the first place, I put for a general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in Death.”  (Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan.  London: J.M. Dent, 1947, Everyman edition).

When I was young and struggling, I thought this was about right. I now think it is tragically and dangerously wrong as I think more and more about the centrality of care and all this implies. But I am still moved by the power of Hobbes’ language, and impressed by how incredibly influential the ways of thinking this quotation represents have been.

What would your childhood self say if someone told you that you would grow up to be a philosopher?

What’s a philosopher? Why would anyone want to do that?

This section of the APA Blog is designed to get to know our fellow philosophers a little better. We’re including profiles of APA members that spotlight what captures their interest not only inside the office, but also outside of it. We’d love for you to be a part of it, so please contact us via the interview nomination form here to nominate yourself or a friend.

Sabrina D. MisirHiralall

Dr. Sabrina D. MisirHiralall is an editor at the Blog of the APA who currently teaches philosophy, religion, and education courses solely online for Montclair State University, Three Rivers Community College, and St. John’s University.