What Do Women Want in a Feminist History of Philosophy?

The New Synthese Historical Library, 2005

The Torn Robe of Philosophy: Philosophy as a Woman in The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, 2020

This book introduces methodological concepts aimed at including women in the canon of the history of philosophy. The history of women philosophers is as long and strong as the history of philosophy, and this holds true not only for the European tradition, as the research of women philosophers of the past shows. The phenomenon of ignoring and excluding women in 19th and 20th century views on the history of philosophy was a result of the patriarchal tradition that ostracized women in general. In this book, leading feminist philosophers discuss methodologies for including women thinkers in the canon and curricula of philosophy. How does the recovery of women thinkers and their philosophies change our view of the past, and how does a different view of the past affect us in the present? Studying a richer and more pluralistic history of philosophy presents us with worlds we have never entered and have never been able to approach. This book will appeal to philosophers and intellectual historians wanting to view the history of philosophy in a new light and who are in favor of an inclusive perspective on that history.

There is a rich and diverse tradition of women philosophers in the history of British thought. Scholars have only recently begun to acknowledge the true extent of this tradition. In the past, the few women thinkers who were recognized were seen as the followers or helpmeets of their more famous male peers. A few women were regarded as philosophers in their own right, but typically only in so far as their ideas conformed to accepted paradigms of philosophy. If the women's texts did not fit these paradigms, then those texts tended to be examined in a piecemeal fashion or ignored altogether. More recently, however, there has been a shift in perspective in the historiography of women's philosophy. Some scholars assert that if women's writings do not fit our modern paradigms, then it is the paradigms that have to be abandoned or re-evaluated, not the texts. The study of women's ideas enables us to see that British philosophy in earlier periods is much more varied and complex than modern philosophers tend to acknowledge. There is now an awareness that in early modern philosophy the lines between politics, morality, theology, metaphysics, and science were often blurred. Many women who would not pass as philosophers today were almost certainly regarded as philosophers in that time. Research into the history of women's philosophy enables us to pay tribute to the influence and significance of past philosophical movements, such as Cambridge Platonism, and to see familiar philosophers, such as René Descartes and John Locke, from new perspectives.

The question "Why does the history of philosophy matter to feminist philosophy?" is a particular version of the question "Why does the history of philosophy matter to philosophy?" And the latter question opens up into debates over the methods and purposes of those philosophers who engage with the history of philosophy. But, of course, there is more than one way for the history of philosophy to matter. In this paper, I suggest that feminist historians of philosophy who are recovering the forgotten work of women philosophers are engaged in a project, which I call the recognition project. Furthermore, I argue that if we focus on the theme of recognition in both its epistemic and political aspects, we will be motivated to add "feminists" to the categorization of scholarly work in the history of philosophy. Abstract The question "Why does the history of philosophy matter to feminist phi-1

Methodological Reflections on Women’s Contribution and Influence in the History of Philosophy, 2020

Abstract Women who are deprived of their histories can be compared to people who have lost their memories. They are unable to build a personal identity. This analogy may be the leading paradigm for my paper, which is primarily dedicated to epistemological questions. Throughout the last 40 years, many scholars have dedicated their endeavours to conserving the writings of women philosophers. Now we have access to valuable sources that show that the history of women philosophers stretches back as far as the history of philosophy itself. Using the history of women philosophers as a methodical approach to philosophy is a unique and indispensable means to widen and to change philosophical insights. Re-reading the history of philosophy and including the ideas of women philosophers, however, does not only add some more narratives but challenges the methodology of philosophy. The history of philosophy that we are traditionally educated in the western world is simply not true to the facts. Thus, I demand a rewriting of the history of philosophy that takes into account the ideas that are incorporated in the writings of women philosophers and that have been denied by the narratives and fabric of sexualized and patriarchally influenced thought.

Choice Reviews Online, 1998

A whistling woman and a crowing hen Will never come to a good end.-Midwestern proverb PHILOSOPHICAL APPEALS TO "HUMAN NATURE" Essentially positive conceptions of human nature have figured prominently in the normative theories of Western philosophers: Aristotle, Rousseau, Kant, and many others based their general ethical and political systems on substantive assumptions about the capacities and dispositions of human beings. Many of these views have been interpreted as affirming the inherent moral value and essential equality of all human beings, and a few have provided inspiration for emancipatory movements, including feminism. Nonetheless, for anyone who would find in these theories a message of universal equality, there is one immediate difficulty: none of the major philosophers intended their claims about the natural entitlements of "man" to be applied to women. 1 Contrary to what's maintained by many contemporary exegetes, it's unlikely that the philosophers' use of masculine terms in the framing of their theories was a "mere linguistic convenience." 2 For if one looks at the (very few) places at which the major philosophers explicitly discuss women, one finds that women are expressly denied both the moral potentialities and the moral perquisites that are supposed to accrue to "man" in virtue of "his" nature. 3 If "man" is generic, and women are "men," then how could this be? It's possible that the philosophers in question believed that men and women did not share a nature at all, in which case all their talk of "man" would be simply and literally talk of men. But this seems unlikely. Philosophers have not really wanted to claim that men and women are members of distinct kinds. Aristotle, Rousseau, and Kant, for example, who all made the possession of reason criterial of humanity, agreed that women could not plausibly be claimed to be utterly devoid of rationality. 4 Alternatively, then, the view must have been that men and women shared some sort of "human" nature, even while women differed from men in morally relevant respects.

Journal for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society, 2000

Sex, Lies, and Bigotry: The Canon of Philosophy, 2020

This book introduces methodological concepts aimed at including women in the canon of the history of philosophy. The history of women philosophers is as long and strong as the history of philosophy, and this holds true not only for the European tradition, as the research of women philosophers of the past shows. The phenomenon of ignoring and excluding women in 19th and 20th century views on the history of philosophy was a result of the patriarchal tradition that ostracized women in general. In this book, leading feminist philosophers discuss methodologies for including women thinkers in the canon and curricula of philosophy. How does the recovery of women thinkers and their philosophies change our view of the past, and how does a different view of the past affect us in the present? Studying a richer and more pluralistic history of philosophy presents us with worlds we have never entered and have never been able to approach. This book will appeal to philosophers and intellectual historians wanting to view the history of philosophy in a new light and who are in favor of an inclusive perspective on that history.

Feminist Reflections on the History of Philosophy, 2005