Virginia Held (1929-2026)
Virginia Held, professor emerita of philosophy at the City University of New York and an influential figure in ethics and social and political philosophy, has died.
Professor Held is especially well known for her work on the ethics of care and feminist philosophy. She is the author of several books, including The Public Interest and Individual Interests (1970), Rights and Goods: Justifying Social Action (1989), Feminist Morality: Transforming Culture, Society, and Politics (2005), The Ethics of Care: Personal, Political, and Global (2006), and How Terrorism is Wrong: Morality and Political Violence (2008). You can learn more about her writings here.
Professor Held was on the faculty at Hunter College, City University of New York from 1965 to 2001. She received her PhD from Columbia University and her BA from Barnard College.
Virginia Held died on May 26, 2026.
Rest in peace, Virginia.
A long time ago I acquired (I forget exactly how, probably in a used bookstore) a paperback copy of a book that Held edited with Kai Nielsen and Charles Parsons, Philosophy and Political Action. Regrettably, I’m not sure I still have it.
It was a collection of essays assembled by the New York Group of the Society for Philosophy and Public Affairs, of which all three editors were members at the time. You can still find used copies online, and it’s archived here: https://archive.org/details/philosophypoliti0000unse_r6n7/page/n305/mode/2up.
Sad to hear, I just used some of her work in a paper. RIP
In the essay she wrote for Singing in the Fire: Stories of Women in Philosophy, Virginia Held wrote, “One of the thoughts that has helped me most in trying to take myself seriously as a philosopher has been one I encountered in the early years of the women’s movement…:consider whose opinion you really care about. Some women writers were then beginning to advise women readers to stop fawning on the established men of power in their lives and in their professions, and to pride themselves instead when other women thought well of them and their work…I gradually came to care increasingly about the good opinion of other feminist philosophers, who occasionally were men but who were almost never well established. I cared more about them than I did about the invitations, which continued to be absent, into the circles of the philosophical elite.”
We had some wonderful conversations. Even when I thought we were agreeing, she pressed me to think more clearly about my ideas. She was patient advisor and very generous with her time. Thank you for your work, Virginia, which has been inspiration for me and so many others.
I’m sorry to hear this news about such a delightful person. I assign one of her articles in each ethics class, and learn something new on every re-read. There is also a great interview with her online, worth a listen.
I’ve used the introduction to The Ethics of Care in my intro ethics courses for a number of years. It’s a clear and compelling introduction to the view. My best to her loved ones.