# Laurie Shrage

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American political and moral philosopher (born 1953)

Laurie J. Shrage Born December 4, 1953 (1953-12-04) (age 72) Philosophical work Institutions Florida International University, Howard University, Lake Forest College, Scripps College, California State Polytechnic University

**Laurie J. Shrage** (born December 4, 1953) is an American political and moral philosopher whose analysis of the agendas for social change advanced by gender and sexual dissidents has been influential.[1]

## Education and career

Shrage has taught at [Howard University](/source/Howard_University), [Lake Forest College](/source/Lake_Forest_College), [Scripps College](/source/Scripps_College), [California State Polytechnic University](/source/California_State_Polytechnic_University), and now teaches at [Florida International University](/source/Florida_International_University).[2] She earned her B.A. (1975) from the [University of California, Davis](/source/University_of_California%2C_Davis) and her M.A. (1979) and Ph.D (1983) from the [University of California, San Diego, Philosophy](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=University_of_California,_San_Diego,_Philosophy&action=edit&redlink=1).[2]

In her first book, *Moral Dilemmas of Feminism: Prostitution, Adultery, and Abortion* (1994), Shrage argued for empirically informed philosophical analyses of moral problems. She argued against the possibility of offering a universal social ethics and, as an alternative, she developed an interpretive approach to moral problems, based in part on the work of [Charles Taylor](/source/Charles_Taylor_(philosopher)).[3]

Her second book, *Abortion and Social Responsibility: Depolarizing the Debate* (2003), argues for reconsidering the [American Law Institute](/source/American_Law_Institute)'s model abortion law developed prior to [Roe v. Wade](/source/Roe_v._Wade). Shrage explores abortion policies around the world, the history of reform and repeal movements in the U.S., moral and legal debates, and ethnographies of pro-life and pro-choice groups, and then recommends restricting elective abortions to roughly the end of the first trimester, in order to balance competing rights and values.[4][5]

Shrage was a Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Fellow at the Center for Human Values at Princeton University (2011–12) and a fellow at the Stanford Humanities Center (1998–99).[2] She was a co-editor of the journal [Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy](/source/Hypatia%3A_A_Journal_of_Feminist_Philosophy) from 1998-2003.[2] She has served as the American Philosophical Association's Ombuds for Non-Discrimination, 2008–11, and as the Program Chair for the American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division meeting in 2001. She was Director of Women's Studies at FIU (2008–11).[2]

## Research areas

Shrage's work evaluates public policies on markets in sexual services and expressive materials, reproductive health care, legal gender identity, and marriage.[1] She is more interested in the active application of philosophical theory to inform public debate - in what she terms "empirically informed philosophy" - than she is in focusing her work on a particular school of philosophical thought.[1] She suggests that moral and political philosophers should pay more attention to historical and scientific accounts of political and moral problems than they currently do.[1]

## Selected bibliography

### Books

- Shrage, Laurie (2003). *Abortion and social responsibility: depolarizing the debate*. Oxford New York: Oxford University Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780195153095](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780195153095).

- Shrage, Laurie J. (2009). *You've changed" sex reassignment and personal identity*. Oxford New York: Oxford University Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780199745029](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780199745029).

- Shrage, Laurie (2013). *Moral dilemmas of feminism: Prostitution, adultery, and abortion*. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9781134977697](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9781134977697).

### Journal articles

- Shrage, Laurie (January 1989). "Should feminists oppose prostitution". *[Ethics](/source/Ethics_(journal))*. **99** (2). [University of Chicago Press](/source/University_of_Chicago_Press): 347–361. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1086/293069](https://doi.org/10.1086%2F293069). [JSTOR](/source/JSTOR_(identifier)) [2381438](https://www.jstor.org/stable/2381438). [S2CID](/source/S2CID_(identifier)) [143685605](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:143685605).

## References

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-apacsw_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-apacsw_1-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-apacsw_1-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-apacsw_1-3) DesAutels, Peggy. ["Laurie Shrage: August 2013"](http://www.apaonlinecsw.org/home/woman_philosopher/laurieshrageaugust2013). *Highlighted Philosophers*. American Philosophical Association. Retrieved August 19, 2013.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-cv_2-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-cv_2-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-cv_2-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-cv_2-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-cv_2-4) Shrage, Laurie. ["Curriculum Vitae"](http://philosophy.fiu.edu/faculty/laurie-shrage/cv2013.pdf) (PDF). Florida International University. Retrieved August 19, 2013.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-satz_3-0)** Satz, Debra (July 1996). "*Moral Dilemmas of Feminism: Prostitution, Adultery, and Abortion* Review". *Ethics*. **106** (4): 864–866. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1086/233683](https://doi.org/10.1086%2F233683).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-sheth_4-0)** A. Sheth, Falguni (2003). "Compromising Positions". *The Women's Review of Books*. **20** (12): 12–13. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.2307/4024217](https://doi.org/10.2307%2F4024217). [JSTOR](/source/JSTOR_(identifier)) [4024217](https://www.jstor.org/stable/4024217).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Peach, Lucinda J. (January 1, 2005). "Abortion and Social Responsibility: Depolarizing the Debate (review)". *NWSA Journal*. **17** (3): 215–217. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1353/nwsa.2005.0067](https://doi.org/10.1353%2Fnwsa.2005.0067). [S2CID](/source/S2CID_(identifier)) [144682202](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:144682202).

## External links

- [Laurie Shrage's Academia.edu listing](https://fiu.academia.edu/LaurieShrage)

- [Laurie Shrage's articles on *The New York Times* Opinionator blog](https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/laurie-shrage/)

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