b. 1948
Margaret Urban Walker is a contemporary American philosopher whose work centers on feminist ethics and moral epistemology. She is best known for her expressive-collaborative model of morality, which challenges the dominant theoretical-juridical approach by grounding ethics in social practices, relationships, and mutual accountability. Her later work extends into moral repair and the conditions for restoring trust after serious moral harm.
Developed the expressive-collaborative model of morality in 'Moral Understandings: A Feminist Study in Ethics' (1998)
Critiqued the theoretical-juridical model for obscuring how moral authority is socially distributed and gendered
Authored 'Moral Repair: Reconstructing Moral Relations after Wrongdoing' (2006), advancing theory of trust restoration
Contributed to feminist moral epistemology, examining how gender shapes whose moral knowledge is recognized
Edited 'Mother Time: Women, Aging, and Ethics' (1999), expanding feminist ethics to questions of age and care
Heterosexual men cannot imagine how a female rape victim feels.