%0 Journal Article
%T The Power and Promise of Developmental Systems Theory
%A Letitia Meynell
%J Les Ateliers de l¡¯¨¦thique
%D 2008
%I Universit¨¦ de Montr¨¦al
%X I argue that it is time for many feminists to rethink their attitudes towards evolutionary biology, not because feminists have been wrong to be deeply sceptical about many of its claims, both explicit and implicit, but because biology itself has changed. A new appreciation for the importance of development in biology has become mainstream and a new ontology, associated with developmental systems theory (DST), has been introduced over the last two decades. This turn challenges some of the features of evolutionary biology that have most troubled feminists. DST undermines the idea of biologicales sence and challenges both nature /nurture and nature/culture distinctions. Freed from these conceptual constraints, evolutionary biology no longer poses the problems that have justified feminist scepticism. Indeed, feminists have already found useful applications for DST and I argue that they should expand their use of DST to support more radical and wide-ranging political theories.Si les f¨¦ministes n¡¯ont pas eu tort d¡¯¨ºtre profond¨¦ment sceptiques face aux nombreuses revendications de la biologie, leur attitude face ¨¤ cette science doit ¨ºtre remise en question car la biologie s¡¯est transform¨¦e au courant des derni¨¨res d¨¦cennies. La  th¨¦orie des syst¨¨mes de d¨¦veloppement  (developmental systems theory-TDS) est une th¨¦orie qui s¡¯est consid¨¦rablement d¨¦velopp¨¦e et qui a pris beaucoup d¡¯ampleur. Cette th¨¦orie n¡¯accepte pas le concept d¡¯essence biologique ce qui pose un d¨¦fi important ¨¤ la distinction nature/culture. Une des cons¨¦quences de cet apport th¨¦orique est que le scepticisme des f¨¦ministes face ¨¤ la biologie de l¡¯¨¦volution n¡¯est plus justifi¨¦ car la biologie ne comporte plus les contraintes essentialistes qui s¡¯av¨¦raient contentieuses. En effet, certaines f¨¦ministes ont d¨¦j¨¤ trouv¨¦ des applications utiles pour la TDS et nous avan ons que les f¨¦ministes doivent maintenant ¨¦largir l¡¯utilisation de la TDS car la port¨¦ de celle-ci pourrait ¨ºtre significative dans d¡¯autres domaines tel celui de la th¨¦orie politique.
%K ¨¦thique appliqu¨¦e
%K f¨¦minisme
%U http://creum.umontreal.ca/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/pdf_07_Letitia_Meynell.pdf