Introduction
Philosophy often centers cis, white, Western men thinkers in its history, and women are largely ignored and/or forgotten. Many women have contributed to and advanced the discipline, and continue to do so today. This feature is meant to highlight the contributions of women and those living beyond the gender binary to philosophy across different subjects as part of our celebration of Women’s History Month.
Further Reading and Exploration
- The Forgotten Half of History: Why Women Philosophers Matter (De Gruyter Conversations)
- Feminist History of Philosophy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- Women in Philosophy (American Philosophical Association Blog)
- Philosophy Needs More Women (The Atlantic)
- Seven Female Philosophers You Should Know About (The Ethics Centre)
Next Steps
As with many of these national commemorations, one month is never enough to fully honor and celebrate the history and culture of marginalized communities, let alone heal the legacies (and ongoing reality) of harm and systemic oppression they've experienced. We recognize that resisting and rejecting misogyny and cisheteropatriarchy cannot be manifested simply through resource lists and guides, however important and well-intentioned, and that justice and liberation for women, expansively defined, and all who challenge and live outside of binary gender is the work of generations. We are, nevertheless, committed to doing what we can to work towards a different, more equitable and caring future.
If you'd like to engage more deeply with Women's History Month, units across the Libraries have created a number of interrelated resources and features to provide more holistic coverage of this commemoration. You'll find those, below:
- Feminism and Feminist Philosophies (Philosophy)
- The Sounds of Women's History Month (Media Studies)
- In Memoriam: bell hooks (Philosophy)
- Transfeminine Worlds: Works by Trans Women and Other Femme Folk (Media Studies)
- Art & Gender (Gender Studies + Art, Art History, & Architecture)
- Women's History Month Streaming and DVD Resources (Media Services)
- Primary Sources on Women in University Collections (Archives and Special Collections)
- Spotlight on Sex Work (Gender Studies)
- Spotlight on Victorian Women Writers Project (English and American Literature)
Prominent Women Philosophers: Ancient, Medieval, & Modern
The ancient period it typically defined as ending around the fall of the Roman Empire.
- Maitreyi - 8th century BCE philosopher; Indian Advaita philosopher, discussed the concepts of Atman and Brahman and their unity, which is the core of Advaita philosophy.
- Gargi Vachaknavi - born about 700 BCE; Indian sage and natural philosopher, scholar of the Vedas, and honored as a Brahmavadini, an individual with knowledge of the Brahma Vidya.
- Theano of Croton - 6th century BCE Pythogorean philosopher; her three daughters also became Pythagorean philosophers.
- Ptolemais of Cyrene - 3rd century BCE, only known female music theorist of antiquity.
- Ban Zhao - 35-100 CE, philosopher, politician, and first known female Chinese historian.
- Hypatia - 360-415 CE, Neoplatonist philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician.
The medieval period is typically defined as being between the 5th century CE to the Renaissance in the 16th century CE.
- Héloïse d’Argenteuil - 1090-1164, French writer, scholar, philosopher, and abbess.
- Hildegard of Bingen - 1098-1179, German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, visionary, and medical writer and practitioner.
- Akka Mahadevi - 1130-1160, early poet of Kannada literature, prominent person in the Lingayat Shaiva sect in the 12th century.
- Tullia d’Aragona - 1510-1556, Italian poet, author, philosopher.
- Teresa of Ávila - 1515-1582, Carmelite nun, Spanish mystic, and religious reformer.
The modern period is typically defined as being from the 16th century to the early 20th century.
- Anna Maria van Schurman - 1607-1648, Dutch painter, engraver, poet, classical scholar, philosopher, and feminist.
- Anne Conway - 1631-1679, English rationalist philosopher of the Enlightenment.
- Juana Inés de la Cruz - 1648-1695, colonial Mexican writer, philosopher, composer, Hieronymite nun, and poet of the Baroque period.
- Mary Astell - 1666-1731, English protofeminist philosopher, writer, rhetorician, and advocate for equal educational opportunities for women.
- Laura Bassi - 1711-1778, Italian physicist, academic, first woman to receive a doctorate in science and the second woman to earn the Doctor of Philosophy degree, and the first woman to be a salaried teacher at a university.
- Im Yunjidang - 1729-1793, Korean writer and neo-Confucian philosopher, one of the first female Confucian philosophers in Korea.
- Mary Wollstonecraft - 1759-1797, writer, philosopher, and women’s rights advocate.
- Harriet Martineau - 1802-1876, English social theorist, abolitionist, and advocate for women’s education.
- Maria W. Stewart - 1803-1879, American abolitionist, teacher, and journalist, first known American woman to speak to a gender-mixed audience, and the first African American woman to make public lectures.
- Frances Power Cobbe - 1822-1904, Anglo-Irish writer, philosopher, religious thinker, social reformer, anti-vivisection activist, and women’s suffrage campaigner.
- Gauri Ma - 1857-1938, prominent Indian disciple of Ramakrishna, companion of Sarada Devi and founder of Kolkata's Saradeswari Ashram.
Prominent Women Philosophers: Contemporary
The contemporary period can be defined as the mid-20th century onward.
There are many contemporary philosophers conducting critical and innovative work in a variety of disciplines. The following philosophers are divided based on their primary area of research, though most are engaged in study across several different areas. A short list of research interests follows each philosopher, along with institutional affiliation (if applicable). Though we tried to include a diverse array of philosophers bringing a variety of perspectives, there is a Western philosophy bias in the following list.
- Susan Haack - epistemology, logic, philosophy of science; University of Miami
- Linda Martín Alcoff - social epistemology, feminist philosophy, philosophy of gender and race; Hunter College, City University of New York
- Carrie Ichikawa Jenkins - epistemology, metaphysics, feminist philosophy, logic, philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of science and technology; University of British Columbia
- Julia Kristeva - feminist philosophy, linguistics, psychoanalysis; Columbia University
- bell hooks - feminist philosophy, intersectionality; Berea College
- Simone de Beauvoir - feminist philosophy, political philosophy, existential phenomenology
- Alison Jaggar - feminist philosophy, social philosophy, moral philosophy, political philosophy; University of Colorado Boulder
- Alia Al-Saji - feminist philosophy, phenomenology, critical philosophy of race; McGill University
- Marilyn Frye - feminist philosophy, metaphysics, epistemology, moral psychology of social categories; Michigan State University
- Kathryn Sophia Belle - Africana philosophy, continental philosophy, black feminist philosophy, critical philosophy of race; Pennsylvania State University
- Donna J. Haraway - feminist philosophy, human-machine & human-animal relations, political philosophy; University of California Santa Cruz
- Eva Kittay - feminist philosophy, ethics of care, social and political theory, metaphor, disability studies; State University of New York, Stony Brook
- Audre Lorde - feminist philosophy, philosophy of race; City University of New York
- Uma Narayan - postcolonial feminism; Vassar College
- Kelly Oliver - feminist philosophy, political philosophy, ethics; Vanderbilt University
- Rosemary Radford Ruether - theological feminism, ecofeminist theology, transnational feminism; Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
- Ofelia Schutte - feminist philosophy, Latin American philosophy, philosophy of culture; University of South Florida
- Lisa H. Schwartzman - feminist philosophy, social philosophy, political philosophy, philosophy of law, ethics; Michigan State University
- Vandana Shiva - ecofeminism, bioethics
- Monique Wittig - feminist philosophy, lesbian philosophy
- Ewa Ziarek - feminist philosophy, ethics, aesthetics, political philosophy; State University of New York at Buffalo
- Sandra Bartky - feminist philosophy, phenomenology; University of Illinois Chicago
- Rebecca Walker - feminist philosophy, philosophy of race
- Luce Irigaray - feminist philosophy, psychoanalysis
- Hannah Arendt - political philosophy, philosophy of history; The New School
- Angela Davis - political philosophy, feminist philosophy; Syracuse University
- Martha Nussbaum - political philosophy, ethics; University of Chicago
- Simone Weil - political philosophy, social philosophy, epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, aesthetics
- Judith Butler - political philosophy, feminist philosophy, queer theory; University of California Berkeley
- Seyla Benhabib - political philosophy, ethics, identity; Yale University
- Susanne Sreedhar - social contract theory, feminist philosophy, moral philosophy, political philosophy; Boston University
- Penelope Maddy - philosophy of mathematics, logic; University of California Irvine
- Ruth Barcan Marcus - logic; Yale University
- Gila Sher - philosophy of logic, epistemology, metaphysics; University of California San Diego
- Susan Stebbing - logic; Bedford College
- Iris Murdoch - moral philosophy
- G.E.M. Anscombe - moral philosophy, political philosophy, logic, metaphysics; University of Cambridge
- Kimberley Brownlee - ethics, social philosophy, political philosophy; University of British Columbia
- Teresa Blankmeyer Burke - ethics, deaf philosophy; Gallaudet University
- Joyce Mitchell Cook - ethics, value theory, decision-making; Howard University
- Ruth Chang - normative ethics, metaethics, action theory, moral psychology; University of Oxford
- Adrian Piper - identity, moral philosophy; Adrian Piper Research Archive
- Rosalind Hursthouse - virtue ethics, philosophy of action, moral psychology; University of Auckland
- Sharon Lloyd - moral philosophy, political philosophy, feminist philosophy; University of Southern California
- Michele Moody-Adams - moral philosophy, political philosophy, philosophy of law; Columbia University
- Elisabeth Lloyd - philosophy of science, philosophy of biology; Indiana University
- Helen Longino - philosophy of science, feminist epistemology, social epistemology; Stanford University
- Tina Fernandes Botts - philosophy of law, feminist philosophy, philosophy of race; Dartmouth College
- Anita L. Allen - legal philosophy, philosophy of privacy, ethics, feminist philosophy; University of Pennsylvania
- Seana Shiffrin - legal philosophy, moral philosophy, political philosophy; University of California Los Angeles
- Kimberlé Crenshaw - philosophy of law, feminist philosophy, political philosophy; Columbia University
- Susanne Langer - philosophy of mind, aesthetics; Connecticut College
- Elisabeth Camp - philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, aesthetics; Rutgers University
Books
Maria W. Stewart, America's First Black Woman Political Writer by ISBN: 0253204461Publication Date: 1987-11-22In gathering and introducing Stewart's works, Richardson provides an opportunity for readers to study the thoughts and words of this influential early black female activist, a forerunner to Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth and the first black American to lecture in defense of women's rights, placing her in the context of the swirling abolitionist movement.
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and The Subjection of Women by ISBN: 0460871730Publication Date: 1929-01-01First published in 1792, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman created a scandal in its day, largely, perhaps, because of the unconventional lifestyle of its creator. Today, it is considered the first great manifesto of women’s rights, arguing passionately for the education of women: "Tyrants and sensualists are in the right when they endeavor to keep women in the dark, because the former want only slaves, and the later a plaything." No narrow-minded zealot, Wollstonecraft balanced passionate advocacy with a sympathetic warmth - a characteristic that helped her ideas achieve widespread influence. Anyone interested in the history of the women’s rights movement will welcome this inexpensive edition of one of the landmark documents in the struggle for human dignity, freedom and equality.
The Origins of Totalitarianism by ISBN: 9780156701532Publication Date: 1973-03-21Hannah Arendt's definitive work on totalitarianism -- an essential component of any study of twentieth-century political history -- now with a new introduction by Anne Applebaum Hannah Arendt's definitive work, The Origins of Totalitarianism, is an essential component of any study of twentieth-century political history. It begins with the rise of anti-Semitism in central and western Europe in the 1800s and continues with an examination of European colonial imperialism from 1884 to the outbreak of World War I. This edition includes an introduction by Anne Applebaum - a leading voice on authoritarianism and Russian history - who fears that "once again, we are living in a world that Arendt would recognize." Hannah Arendt explores the institutions and operations of totalitarian movements, focusing on the two genuine forms of totalitarian government in our time, Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia, which she adroitly recognizes were two sides of the same coin, rather than opposing philosophies of Right and Left. From this vantage point, she discusses the evolution of classes into masses, the role of propaganda in dealing with the non-totalitarian world, the use of terror, and the nature of isolation and loneliness as preconditions for total domination.
The Human Condition by ISBN: 9780226025933Publication Date: 1970-03-01A work of striking originality bursting with unexpected insights, The Human condition is in many respects more relevant now than when it first appeared in 1958. In her study of the state of modern humanity, Hannah Arendt considers humankind from the perspective of the actions of which it is capable. The problems Arendt identified then--diminishing human agency and political freedom, the paradox that as human powers increase through technological and humanistic inquiry, we are less equipped to control the consequences of our actions--continue to confront us today. A classic in political and social theory, The Human condition is a work that has proved both timeless and perpetually timely.
Hannah Arendt and the Negro Question by ISBN: 9780253011718Publication Date: 2014-03-28While acknowledging Hannah Arendt's keen philosophical and political insights, Kathryn T. Gines claims that there are some problematic assertions and oversights regarding Arendt's treatment of the "Negro question." Gines focuses on Arendt's reaction to the desegregation of Little Rock schools, to laws making mixed marriages illegal, and to the growing civil rights movement in the south. Reading them alongside Arendt's writings on revolution, the human condition, violence, and responses to the Eichmann war crimes trial, Gines provides a systematic analysis of anti-black racism in Arendt's work.
On Intersectionality: Essential Writings by Publication Date: 2017For more than twenty years, scholars, activists, educators, and lawyers – inside and outside of the United States – have employed the concept of intersectionality both to describe problems of inequality and to fashion concrete solutions. In particular, as the Washington Post reported recently, “the term has been used by social activists as both a rallying cry for more expansive progressive movements and a chastisement for their limitations.” Drawing on black feminist and critical legal theory, Kimberlé Crenshaw developed the concept of intersectionality, a term she coined to speak to the multiple social forces, social identities, and ideological instruments through which power and disadvantage are expressed and legitimized.
If They Come in the Morning: voices of resistance by Publication Date: 1971The trial of Angela Davis is remembered as one of America's most historic political trials, and no one can tell the story better than Davis herself. Opening with a letter from James Baldwin to Angela, and including contributions from numerous radicals and commentators such as Black Panthers George Jackson, Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale and Erica Huggins, this book is not only an account of Davis's incarceration and the struggles surrounding it, but also perhaps the most comprehensive and thorough analysis of the prison system of the United States and the figure embodied in Davis's arrest and imprisonment—the political prisoner. Since the book was written, the carceral system in the US has grown from strength to strength, with more of its black population behind bars than ever before. The scathing analysis of the role of prison and the policing of black populations offered by Davis and her comrades in this astonishing volume remains as relevant today as the day it was published.
Women, Race and Class by ISBN: 9780394713519Publication Date: 1983-02-12Angela Davis provides a powerful history of the social and political influence of whiteness and elitism in feminism, from abolitionist days to the present, and demonstrates how the racist and classist biases of its leaders inevitably hampered any collective ambitions. While Black women were aided by some activists like Sarah and Angelina Grimke and the suffrage cause found unwavering support in Frederick Douglass, many women played on the fears of white supremacists for political gain rather than take an intersectional approach to liberation. Here, Davis not only contextualizes the legacy and pitfalls of civil and women's rights activists, but also discusses Communist women, the murder of Emmitt Till, and Margaret Sanger's racism. Davis shows readers how the inequalities between Black and white women influence the contemporary issues of rape, reproductive freedom, housework and child care in this bold and indispensable work.
For Equals Only: race, equality, and the equal protection clause by ISBN: 9781498501231Publication Date: 2018-09-15This book philosophically explores how changing conceptions of race and equality have affected Supreme Court interpretations of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution over the years. In the years since the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, in its decisions interpreting the Equal Protection Clause, the Supreme Court has switched from using a sociocultural concept of race to using a biological concept of race, and during the same time period has switched from using a social to a legal concept of equality. One result of these trends is the recent emergence of something called 'reverse discrimination.' Another result is that the Equal Protection Clause no longer specially protects racialized persons from racial discrimination, as it was originally intended to do. Using the tools of legal hermeneutics, critical philosophy of race, and critical race theory, key cases of racial discrimination in equal protection law are examined through a historical lens. The Supreme Court's switch, over the years, from interpreting the Equal Protection Clause as specially protecting racialized persons from continued racial discrimination after the end of the institution of chattel slavery, to interpreting the Clause as protecting everyone from racial discrimination, is tracked alongside changing conceptions of race and equality. As the concept of race became biological, the concept of equality became legal, and the result was the elimination of remedying the negative effects of chattel slavery on the equality status of racialized persons from the Supreme Court's list of priorities.
This Sex Which Is Not One by ISBN: 0801493315Publication Date: 1985-05-10In This Sex Which Is Not One, Luce Irigaray elaborates on some of the major themes of Speculum of the Other Woman, her landmark work on the status of woman in Western philosophical discourse and in psychoanalytic theory, In eleven acute and widely ranging essays, Irigaray reconsiders the question of female sexuality in a variety of contexts that are relevant to current discussion of feminist theory and practice. Among the topics she treats are the implications of the thought of Freud and Lacan for understanding womanhood and articulating a feminine discourse; classic views on the significance of the difference between male and female sex organs; and the experience of erotic pleasure in men and in women. She also takes up explicitly the question of economic exploitation of women; in an astute reading of Marx she shows that the subjection of woman has been institutionalized by her reduction to an object of economic exchange. Throughout Irigaray seeks to dispute and displace male-centered structures of language and thought through a challenging writing practice that takes a first step toward a woman's discourse, a discourse that would put an end to Western culture's enduring phallocentrism. Making more direct and accessible the subversive challenge of Speculum of the Other Woman, this volume--skillfully translated by Catherine Porter (with Carolyn Burke)--will be essential reading for anyone seriously concerned with contemporary feminist issues.
Ain't I a Woman by ISBN: 9781138821514Publication Date: 2014-10-14A classic work of feminist scholarship, Ain't I a Woman has become a must-read for all those interested in Black womanhood. Examining the impact of sexism on Black women during slavery, the devaluation of Black womanhood, Black male sexism, racism among feminists, and the Black woman's involvement with feminism, hooks attempts to move us beyond racist and sexist assumptions. The result is nothing short of ground-breaking, giving this book a critical place on every feminist scholar's bookshelf.
Whether a Christian Woman Should Be Educated and Other Writings from Her Intellectual Circle by ISBN: 0226849996Publication Date: 1998-11-01Advocate and exemplar of women's education, female of aristocratic birth and modest demeanor, Anna Maria van Schurman (1607-1678) was one of Reformation Europe's most renowned writers defending women's intelligence. From her early teens, Schurman garnered recognition and admiration for her accomplishments in languages, philosophy, poetry, and painting. As an adult she actively engaged in written correspondence and debate with Europe's leading intellectuals. Nevertheless, Schurman refused to regard herself as an anomaly among women. A supporter of the female sex, she argues that the same rigorous education that shaped her should be made available to all Christian daughters of the aristocracy. Gathered here in meticulous translation are Anna Maria van Schurman's defense of women's education, her letters to other learned women, and her own account of her early life, as well as responses to her work from male contemporaries, and rare writings by Schurman's mentor, Voetius.
Some Reflections Upon Marriage by Publication Date: 1700Published anonymously in 1700, Some Reflections upon Marriage lamented the inequities of the institution of marriage and reasoned against it with both traditional and innovative arguments. Mary Astell's tract, written in response to an infamous divorce case, forcefully argued against the grim but all-too-common prospect of a marriage of necessity to a man in search of power, money, or a trophy wife. Astell proposed education as the solution to women's second-class status, stating that knowledge alone could lead to a partnership based on friendship and respect. "Let us learn to pride ourselves in something more excellent than the invention of a fashion," she wrote, and her well-reasoned arguments soon won her a wide readership.
The Second Sex by ISBN: 9780307265562Publication Date: 2010-04-13This triumphant and genuinely revolutionary book began as an exceptional woman's attempt to find out who and what she was. Drawing on extensive interviews with women of every age and station of life, masterfully synthesizing research about women's bodies and psyches as well as their historic and economic roles, The Second Sex is an encyclopedic and cogently argued document about inequality and enforced otherness. This long-awaited new translation pays particular attention to the existentialist terms and French nuances that may have been misconstrued in the first English edition restores Beauvoir's phrasing, rhythms, and tone; and reinstates significant portions of the Myths and History chapters that were originally cut due to length, including accounts of more than seventy female figures. A vital and life-changing work that has dramatically revised the way women talk and think about themselves, Beauvoir's magisterial treatise continues to provoke and inspire.
Gender Trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity by ISBN: 0415900433Publication Date: 1989-11-15Ever since feminist theory introduced the distinction between sex and gender, the question of what it means to be a woman has preoccupied feminist thought. In GenderTrouble Judith Butler questions whether it is possible to "be" a woman at all or, for that matter, any gender.
Bodies That Matter: on the discursive limits of "sex" by ISBN: 0415903661Publication Date: 1993-09-20In Bodies That Matter, Judith Butler further develops her distinctive theory of gender by examining the workings of power at the most "material" dimensions of sex and sexuality. Deepening the inquiries she began in GenderTrouble,Butler offers an original reformulation of the materiality of bodies, examining how the power of heterosexual hegemony forms the "matter" of bodies, sex, and gender. Butler argues that power operates to constrain "sex" from the start, delimiting what counts as a viable sex. She offers a clarification of the notion of "performativity" introduced in Gender Troubleand explores the meaning of a citational politics. The text includes readings of Plato, Irigaray, Lacan, and Freud on the formation of materiality and bodily boundaries; "Paris is Burning," Nella Larsen's "Passing," and short stories by Willa Cather; along with a reconsideration of "performativity" and politics in feminist, queer, and radical democratic theory.Beauvoir and Belle: a Black feminist critique of The Second Sex by
Publication Date: 2024-05-07Kathryn Sophia Belle centers feminist frameworks, discourses, and vocabularies of Black women and other Women of Color that existed prior to and have continued to exist after The Second Sex. She centers and amplifies the voices of Black women and other Women of Color, such as Lorraine Hansberry, Angela Davis, Chikwenye Ogunyemi, Deborah King, Oyèrónké Oywùmí, Mariana Ortega, Kathy Glass, bell hooks, Kyoo Lee, Stephanie Rivera Berruz, Patricia Hill Collins, and Alia Al-Saji. Special attention is also given to Claudia Jones and Audre Lorde, both of whom implicitly and indirectly engage with The Second Sex. Beauvoir and Belle demonstrates the myriad ways in which these frameworks both expose and surpass the limits of The Second Sex.
Uneasy Access: privacy for women in a free society by ISBN: 0847673286Publication Date: 1988-06-28Anita L. Allen breaks new ground...A stunning indictment of women's status in contemporary society, her book provides vital original scholarly research and insight.
Love's Labor: essays on equality, dependency, and care by ISBN: 0415904137Publication Date: 1998-12-17Where society is viewed as an association of equal and autonomous persons, the work of caring for dependents figures neither in political theory nor in social policy. While some women have made many gains, equality continues to elude many others, as in large measure, social institutions fail to take into account the dependency of childhood, illness, disability and frail old age and fail to adequately support those who care for dependents. Using a narrative of her experiences caring for her disabled daughter, Eva Feder Kittay discusses the relevance of her analysis of dependency to significant cognitive disability. She explores the significance of dependency work by analyzing John Rawls' influential liberal theory and two examples of public policy—welfare reform and family leave—to show how theory and policy fail women when they miss the centrality of dependency to issues of justice. This second edition has updated material on care workers, her adult disabled daughter and key changes in welfare reform.
Femininity and Domination: studies in the phenomenology of oppression by ISBN: 0415901863Publication Date: 1990-11-20Bartky draws on the experience of daily life to unmask the many disguises by which intimations of inferiority are visited upon women. She critiques both the male bias of current theory and the debilitating dominion held by notions of "proper femininity" over women and their bodies in patriarchal culture.
50 Concepts for a Critical Phenomenology by ISBN: 9780810141148Publication Date: 2019-10-15Phenomenology, the philosophical method that seeks to uncover the taken-for-granted presuppositions, habits, and norms that structure everyday experience, is increasingly framed by ethical and political concerns. Critical phenomenology foregrounds experiences of marginalization, oppression, and power in order to identify and transform common experiences of injustice that render "the familiar" a site of oppression for many. In Fifty Concepts for a Critical Phenomenology, leading scholars present fresh readings of classic phenomenological topics and introduce newer concepts developed by feminist theorists, critical race theorists, disability theorists, and queer and trans theorists that capture aspects of lived experience that have traditionally been neglected. By centering historically marginalized perspectives, the chapters in this book breathe new life into the phenomenological tradition and reveal its ethical, social, and political promise. This volume will be an invaluable resource for teaching and research in continental philosophy; feminist, gender, and sexuality studies; critical race theory; disability studies; cultural studies; and critical theory more generally.
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Real Knowing: new versions of the coherence theory by Publication Date: 1996-06"Real" knowing always involves a political dimension, Linda Mart?n Alcoff suggests. But this does not mean we need to give up realism or the possibility of truth. Recent work in continental philosophy insists on the influence that power and desire exert on knowing, whereas contemporary analytic philosophy largely ignores these political concerns in its accounts of justification and truth. Alcoff engages these traditionally conflicting approaches in a constructive dialogue, effectively spanning the analytic/continental divide.In provocative readings of major figures in the continental tradition, Alcoff shows that the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Michel Foucault can help rectify key problems in coherence epistemology, such as the link between coherence and truth. She also argues that discussions about knowledge among continental philosophers can benefit from the work of analytic philosophers Donald Davidson and Hilary Putnam on meaning and ontology. Alcoff makes a compelling case for the need to address truth as a metaphysical issue, in contrast to minimalist tendencies in Anglo-American philosophy and deconstructionism on the continent. Her work persuasively argues for coherentist epistemology as a more realistic reconfiguration of the ontology of truth.
Visible Identities: race, gender, and the self by ISBN: 0195137353Publication Date: 2005-12-22In the heated debates over identity politics, few theorists have looked carefully at the conceptualizations of identity assumed by all sides. Visible Identities fills this gap. Drawing on both philosophical sources as well as theories and empirical studies in the social sciences, Martín Alcoff makes a strong case that identities are not like special interests, nor are they doomed to oppositional politics, nor do they inevitably lead to conformism, essentialism, or reductive approaches to judging others. Identities are historical formations and their political implications are open to interpretation. But identities such as race and gender also have a powerful visual and material aspect that eliminativists and social constructionists often underestimate. Visible Identities offers a careful analysis of the political and philosophical worries about identity and argues that these worries are neither supported by the empirical data nor grounded in realistic understandings of what identities are. Martín Alcoff develops a more realistic characterization of identity in general through combining phenomenological approaches to embodiment with hermeneutic concepts of the interpretive horizon. Besides addressing the general contours of social identity, Martín Alcoff develops an account of the material infrastructure of gendered identity, compares and contrasts gender identities with racialized ones, and explores the experiential aspects of racial subjectivity for both whites and non-whites. In several chapters she looks specifically at Latino identity as well, including its relationship to concepts of race, the specific forms of anti-Latino racism, and the politics of mestizo or hybrid identity.
What Love Is: and what it could be by ISBN: 9780465098859Publication Date: 2017-01-24A rising star in philosophy examines the cultural, social, and scientific interpretations of love to answer one of our most enduring questions What is love? Aside from being the title of many a popular love song, this is one of life's perennial questions. In What Love Is, philosopher Carrie Jenkins offers a bold new theory on the nature of romantic love that reconciles its humanistic and scientific components. Love can be a social construct (the idea of a perfect fairy tale romance) and a physical manifestation (those anxiety- inducing heart palpitations); we must recognize its complexities and decide for ourselves how to love. Motivated by her own polyamorous relationships, she examines the ways in which our parameters of love have recently changed-to be more accepting of homosexual, interracial, and non-monogamous relationships-and how they will continue to evolve in the future. Full of anecdotal, cultural, and scientific reflections on love, What Love Is is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand what it means to say "I love you." Whether young or old, gay or straight, male or female, polyamorous or monogamous, this book will help each of us decide for ourselves how we choose to love.
Korean Women Philosophers and the Ideal of a Female Sage by ISBN: 9780197508695Publication Date: 2023-07-21Korean Women Philosophers and the Ideal of a Female Sage introduces the lives and ideas of two female Korean Confucian philosophers from the late Joseon Dynasty (18th-19th century), Im Yunjidang (1721-1793) and Gang Jeongildang (1772-1832), examining how their writings contribute to contemporary philosophical inquiry. Both philosophers are known for arguing that women are as capable as men of attaining the highest forms of intellectual and moral achievement and thereby can become female sages (yeoseong), with their reasoning building on distinctively Confucian philosophical claims about the original, pure moral nature shared by all human beings.
Human Life, Action and Ethics by ISBN: 9781845400613Publication Date: 2006-03-21This volume presents a collection of essays by the celebrated philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe. This collection includes papers on human nature and practical philosophy, together with the classic 'Modern Moral Philosophy'.
Making Comparisons Count by ISBN: 0815337825Publication Date: 2001-12-26This book attempts to answer two questions: Are alternatives for choice ever incomparable? and In what ways can items be compared? The arguments offered suggest that alternatives for choice no matter how different are never incomparable, and that the ways in which items can be compared are richer and more varied than commonly supposed.
The Sovereignty of Good by ISBN: 0710068638Publication Date: 1970Iris Murdoch once observed: 'philosophy is often a matter of finding occasions on which to say the obvious'. What was obvious to Murdoch, and to all those who read her work, is that Good transcends everything - even God. Throughout her distinguished and prolific writing career, she explored questions of Good and Bad, myth and morality. The framework for Murdoch's questions - and her own conclusions - can be found here.
The Fragility of Goodness by ISBN: 0521277027Publication Date: 1986-02-20This book is a study of ancient Greek views about 'moral luck'. It examines the fundamental ethical problem that many of the valued constituents of a well-lived life are vulnerable to factors outside a person's control, and asks how this affects our appraisal of persons and their lives. The Greeks made a profound contribution to these questions, yet neither the problems nor the Greek views of them have received the attention they deserve. This book thus recovers a central dimension of Greek thought and addresses major issues in contemporary ethical theory. One of its most original aspects is its interelated treatment of both literary and philosophical texts. In a close analysis of three tragedies, and works by Plato and Aristotle, the author argues that we cannot understand the thought of the philosophers without also investigating its relation to the literary works; and that the literary works, in virtue of their form as well as their content, make a distinctive contribution to ethical thought.
Justice for Animals by ISBN: 9781982102500Publication Date: 2023-01-03Animals are in trouble all over the world. Whether through the cruelties of the factory meat industry, poaching and game hunting, habitat destruction, or neglect of the companion animals that people purport to love, animals suffer injustice and horrors at our hands every day. The world needs an ethical awakening, a consciousness-raising movement of international proportions. In Justice for Animals, one of the world's most influential philosophers and humanists Martha C. Nussbaum provides a revolutionary approach to animal rights, ethics, and law. From dolphins to crows, elephants to octopuses, Nussbaum examines the entire animal kingdom, showcasing the lives of animals with wonder, awe, and compassion to understand how we can create a world in which human beings are truly friends of animals, not exploiters or users. All animals should have a shot at flourishing in their own way. Humans have a collective duty to face and solve animal harm. An urgent call to action and a manual for change, Nussbaum's groundbreaking theory directs politics and law to help us meet our ethical responsibilities as no book has done before.
- Intention');" />Intention byPublication Date: 1957ntention is one of the masterworks of twentieth-century philosophy in English. First published in 1957, it has acquired the status of a modern philosophical classic. The book attempts to show in detail that the natural and widely accepted picture of what we mean by an intention gives rise to insoluble problems and must be abandoned. This is a welcome reprint of a book that continues to grow in importance.
Modalities by ISBN: 9780195096576Publication Date: 1995-06-29Based on her earlier ground-breaking axiomatization of quantified modal logic, the papers collected here by the distinguished philosopher Ruth Barcan Marcus cover much ground in the development of her thought, spanning from 1961 to 1990. The first essay here introduces themes initially viewed as iconoclastic, such as the necessity of identity, the directly referential role of proper names as "tags", the Barcan Formula about the interplay of possibility and existence, and alternative interpretations of quantification. Marcus also addresses the putative puzzles about substitutivity and about essentialism. The collection also includes influential essays on moral conflict, on belief and rationality, and on some historical figures. Many of her views have been incorporated into current theories, while others remain part of a continuing debate.
The Bounds of Logic by ISBN: 0262193116Publication Date: 1991-11-08The Bounds of Logic presents a philosophical theory of the scope and nature of logic based on critical analysis of the principles underlying Tarskian logic and inspired by mathematical and linguistic developments.
Epistemic Friction by ISBN: 9780198768685Publication Date: 2016-08-09Gila Sher approaches knowledge from the perspective of the basic human epistemic situation - the situation of limited yet resourceful beings, living in a complex world and aspiring to know it in its full complexity. What principles should guide them? Two fundamental principles of knowledge are epistemic friction and freedom. Knowledge must be substantially constrained by the world (friction), but without active participation of the knower in accessing the world (freedom) theoretical knowledge is impossible. This requires a grounding of all knowledge, empirical and abstract, in both mind and world, but the fall of traditional foundationalism has led many to doubt the viability of this "classical" project. The book challenges this skepticism, charting a new foundational methodology, foundational holism, that differs from others in being holistic, world-oriented, and universal (i.e., applicable to all fields of knowledge). Using this methodology, Epistemic Friction develops an integrated theory of knowledge, truth, and logic.
Logic in Practice by Publication Date: 1934This book discusses the habit of sound reasoning which is acquired by consciously attending to the logical principles of sound reasoning, in order to apply them to test the soundness of arguments. It isn’t an introduction to logic but it encourages the practice of logic, of deciding whether reasons in argument are sound or unsound. Stress is laid upon the importance of considering language, which is a key instrument of our thinking and is imperfect.
Philosophy of Logics by ISBN: 0521293294Publication Date: 1978-07-27The first systematic exposition of all the central topics in the philosophy of logic, Susan Haack's book has established an international reputation (translated into five languages) for its accessibility, clarity, conciseness, orderliness, and range as well as for its thorough scholarship and careful analyses. Haack discusses the scope and purpose of logic, validity, truth-functions, quantification and ontology, names, descriptions, truth, truth-bearers, the set-theoretical and semantic paradoxes, and modality. She also explores the motivations for a whole range of non-classical systems of logic, including many-valued logics, fuzzy logic, moddal and tense logics, and relevance logics. Presupposing only an elementary knowledge of formal logic, this book includes many useful summary tables and diagrams, as well as a helpful glossary of technical terms. Wide-ranging, informative, and eminently readable, this book has proven a valuable resource for generations of students and scholars in a variety of disciplines outside philosophy needing guidance on the philosophy of logic.
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Scholarly Articles
- Moody-Adams, M. M. (2018). Democratic Conflict and the Political Morality of Compromise. NOMOS: American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy, 59, 186–219.
- Crenshaw, K. W. (2012). From Private Violence to Mass Incarceration: Thinking Intersectionally about Women, Race, and Social Control. UCLA Law Review, 59(6), 1418–1473.
- Shiffrin, S. V. (2022). Unfit to Print: Government Speech and the First Amendment. UCLA Law Review, 69(4), 986–1027.
- Belle, K. S. (2020). Interlocking, Intersecting, and Intermeshing: Critical Engagements with Black and Latina Feminist Paradigms of Identity and Oppression. Critical Philosophy of Race, 8(1–2), 165–198. https://doi-org.proxyiub.uits.iu.edu/10.5325/critphilrace.8.1-2.0165
- Schwartzman, L. H. (2012). Intuition, Thought Experiments, and Philosophical Method: Feminism and Experimental Philosophy. Journal of Social Philosophy, 43(3), 307–316. https://doi-org.proxyiub.uits.iu.edu/10.1111/j.1467-9833.2012.01566.
- Uma Narayan. (2019). Sisterhood and “Doing Good”: Asymmetries of Western Feminist Location, Access and Orbits of Concern. Feminist Philosophy Quarterly, 5(2). https://doi-org.proxyiub.uits.iu.edu/10.5206/fpq/2019.2.7299
- Schutte, O. (1998). Cultural Alterity: Cross-Cultural Communication and Feminist Theory in North-South Contexts. Hypatia, 13(2), 53–72.
- Schutte, O. (2011). Engaging Latin American Feminisms Today: Methods, Theory, Practice. Hypatia, 26(4), 783–803. https://doi-org.proxyiub.uits.iu.edu/10.1111/j.1527-2001.2011.01200.x
- Al-Saji, A. (2010). Bodies and sensings: On the uses of Husserlian phenomenology for feminist theory. Continental Philosophy Review, 43(1), 13–37. https://doi-org.proxyiub.uits.iu.edu/10.1007/s11007-010-9135-8
- Al-Saji, A. (2023). A Debilitating Colonial Duration: Reconfiguring Fanon. Research in Phenomenology, 53(3), 279–307. https://doi-org.proxyiub.uits.iu.edu/10.1163/15691640-12341529
- Linda Martín Alcoff. (2022). Extractivist epistemologies. Tapuya, 5(1). https://doi-org.proxyiub.uits.iu.edu/10.1080/25729861.2022.2127231
- Marcus, R. B. (1983). Rationality and Believing the Impossible. The Journal of Philosophy, 80(6), 321–338. https://doi-org.proxyiub.uits.iu.edu/10.2307/2026334
- Sabatello, M., Burke, T. B., McDonald, K. E., & Appelbaum, P. S. (2020). Disability, Ethics, and Health Care in the COVID-19 Pandemic. American Journal of Public Health, 110(10), 1523–1527. https://doi-org.proxyiub.uits.iu.edu/10.2105/AJPH.2020.305837
- Allen, A. L. (2022). Privacy, Health, and Race Equity in the Digital Age. American Journal of Bioethics, 22(7), 60–63. https://doi-org.proxyiub.uits.iu.edu/10.1080/15265161.2022.2076405
- Moody-Adams, M. M. (2017). Moral Progress and Human Agency. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 20(1), 153–168.
- Marcus, R. B. (1974). Classes, collections, and individuals. American Philosophical Quarterly, 11, 227–232.
- Maddy, P., & Meadows, T. (2020). A Reconstruction of Steel’s Multiverse Project. The Bulletin of Symbolic Logic, 26(2), 118–169.
Professional Organizations & Funding Opportunities
- APA Committee on the Status of WomenThe Committee is charged with assessing and reporting on the status of women in the profession.
- Collegium of Black Women PhilosophersThe Collegium of Black Women Philosophers (CBWP) is an organization which was created to increase the visibility of black women in the field of philosophy and to allow greater networking and mentoring opportunities for these women. The organization is currently based at Penn State University.
- The International Association of Women PhilosophersThe International Association of Women Philosophers is a professional association and network that provides a forum for discussion, interaction and cooperation among women engaged in teaching and research in all aspects of philosophy, with a particular emphasis on feminist philosophy.
- Minorities and PhilosophyMAP’s mission is to address structural injustices in academic philosophy and to remove barriers that impede participation in academic philosophy for members of marginalized groups.
- SPEP Committee on the Status of WomenThe Committee on the Status of Women was established in 1984 for the purpose of increasing the participation of women in SPEP. To that end, it requests information on the participation of women in the Society, creates a program session, and (with financial sponsorship from a university press) has, in the past, hosted a reception at conferences of the society.
- Women in Philosophy Task ForceThe Women in Philosophy Task Force (WPHTF) is an umbrella group that works to coordinate initiatives and intensify efforts to advance women in philosophy.
- Association for Feminist Ethics and Social TheoryFeminist Ethics and Social Theory is a professional organization dedicated to promoting feminist ethical perspectives on philosophy, moral and political life, and public policy that centers decolonized, intersectional, and interdisciplinary approaches.
Source: Women in Philosophy: Organizations | University of Colorado Boulder
- Indiana University GradGrants CenterThe GradGrants Center (GGC) supports Indiana University graduate students as they find and secure sponsored grants, fellowships, and awards from external sources that are essential to their academic, research, and professional pursuits. Through extensive access to external funding opportunities for all disciplines, the GGC constitutes an invaluable resource and educational tool to both IU’s graduate student community and the University as a whole.
- APA Prizes and FellowshipsThis is the APA’s page for graduate student prizes and fellowships.
- Non-APA Prizes, Grants, and FellowshipsThis is the APA's page for external prizes, grants, and fellowships.
- Marc Sanders Foundation: Graduate Student PrizeThe Marc Sanders graduate student prize. The winner of this prize gets $1,000 and their submission accepted to the eastern APA.
- Doctoral Dissertation FellowshipsFunds a major program of graduate fellowships in the humanities and social sciences. These fellowships support students in the final stages of doctoral study whose work offers significant potential for advancing academic scholarship related to ethics and/or religion. The Institute for Citizens & Scholars administers all aspects of this program, including a rigorous national competition for Newcombe Fellowships each year.
Below are guides with additional funding information:
- Philosophy External Funding Resources (Fordham University)
- External Grants (Rutgers University)
- External Fellowships (University of Illinois Chicago)
- Graduate Funding and Fellowships (University of Arizona)