Lisa Tessman is a contemporary feminist moral philosopher best known for her work on burdened virtues and the ethics of oppression. She argues that character traits developed under conditions of injustice may be simultaneously virtuous and harmful to their bearers, challenging traditional virtue ethics frameworks. Her later work examines moral remainder, moral failure, and the impossible demands that morality sometimes places on agents.
Developed the concept of 'burdened virtues' — traits that enable survival under oppression but come at significant personal cost
Authored Burdened Virtues: Virtue Ethics for Liberatory Struggles (2005), a foundational text in feminist virtue ethics
Authored Moral Failure: On the Impossible Demands of Morality (2015), examining cases where moral requirements cannot be fully met
Integrated feminist standpoint epistemology with neo-Aristotelian virtue theory
Contributed to debates on moral residue, tragic choice, and the ethics of resistance
Heterosexual men cannot imagine how a female rape victim feels.