Another feminist reading of contractualism. On the education of passions for freedom and equality

Abstract

Following the guidelines drawn by the first feminist thinkers, the hypothesis of this article maintains that contractualism allows us to think about an intersubjective source of the most powerful expression of reason. This source is education. Without it, reason cannot unfold, develop, it is incompleted; and its vacancy breaks freedom and equality in the civil order.

Although counter-intuitive, this hypothesis finds support in recent feminist political theory and allows us to rethink the relevance of early feminist thought.