Feminist Theory, Spinoza and our Changing Experience of Privacy
Philosophy@UWS Seminars 2014
Our experiences of privacy are changing as a result of two contingent factors: feminist challenges to the liberal public / private divide and changes in information flow as a result of computer mediated communication. This paper theorises some of the feminist implications of these changes. In particular, it draws upon the first two of Spinoza’s three kinds of knowledge as a starting point to conceptualising what we mean by harm in privacy cases, such as “revenge porn”.
Janice Richardson is an Associate Professor in Law at Monash University. She researches at the intersection of continental philosophy, feminist philosophy and law. She is author of the following books: Selves, Persons, Individuals and The Classic Social Contractarians and co-editor of Feminist Perspectives on Tort Law and Feminist Perspectives on Law and Theory. Her articles appear in: Angelaki, Law and Critique, Feminist Legal Studies, Economy and Society, Ratio Juris, Minds and Machines, British Journal of Politics and International Relations and The Australian Feminist Law Journal.