The DRL Anniversary Conference: A Reading List!
In July 2025, we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Diversity Reading List’s existence with an international conference in Manchester. We used this opportunity to celebrate the progress of the last decade and discuss what remains to be done; to bring together academics working on themes relevant to the DRL’s mission, and to make work by authors from under-represented groups more visible in university education and research. You can watch the talks here.
After the conference, we asked all participants to share with us the texts they have found most inspiring – at the conference and beyond. We would now like to share this selection with you, hoping it might inspire you, too.
Alessandri, Mariana. Gloria Anzaldúa as philosopher: The early years (1962–1987)
2020, Philosophy Compass.
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It's time that philosophers read Gloria Anzaldúa as a philosopher. Scholars have been hinting at it for some time, but in describing her they still tend to choose the terms “theorist,” “feminist,” and “thinker” instead of “philosopher.” Anzaldúa fits into all of these categories, but from her notes, we know that Anzaldúa also thought of herself as a philosopher. In 2002, for instance, she called herself a “feminist-visionary-spiritual-activist-poet-philosopher fiction writer.” This essay argues that we should grant Anzaldúa's wish to be considered a philosopher in addition to the other appellations, and focuses on works that she read and wrote in the first half of her scholarly career, including the publication of Borderlands/La Frontera in 1987. The evidence for the claim that Anzaldúa thought of herself as a philosopher is mostly archival, but some of it also appears in her published works. Once philosophers explicitly begin to recognize Anzaldúa as a philosopher, comparisons between her and other already recognized philosophers will become fuller and bear more fruit.
Astell, Mary. A Serious Proposal to the Ladies: For the Advancement of Their True and Greatest Interest. In Two Parts
1697, London: Printed for Richard Wilkin at the King’s-Head in St. Paul’s Church-yard.
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From 1000-Word Philosophy (author: Simone Webb): "Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) is established in the popular imagination as the “first feminist,” but another philosopher provided a systematic analysis of women’s subjugated condition and a call for female education nearly a century before Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). Mary Astell’s (1666-1731) A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, for the Advancement of their True and Greatest Interest by a Lover of Her Sex, Parts I and II (1694, 1697) is a philosophical text that argues that women are in an inferior moral condition compared to men, analyses the causes of this problem, and presents a two-part remedy."
Mary Astell’s “A Serious Proposal to the Ladies”
Bourdieu, Pierre. Pascalian Meditations
2000, Stanford: Stanford University Press.
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A synthesis of forty years' work by France's leading sociologist, this book pushes the critique of scholarly reason to a new level. It is a brilliant example of Bourdieu's unique ability to link sociological theory, historical information, and philosophical thought. Pascalian Meditations makes explicit the presuppositions of a state of "scholasticism," a certain leisure liberated from the urgencies of the world. Philosophers, unwilling to engage these presuppositions in their practice, have brought them into the order of discourse, not so much to analyze them as to legitimate them. This situation is the primary systematic, epistemological, ethical, and aesthetic error that Bourdieu subjects to methodological critique. This critique of scholarly reason is carried out in the name of Pascal because he, too, pointed out the features of human existence that the scholastic outlook ignores: he was concerned with symbolic power; he refused the temptation of foundationalist thinking; he attended (without populist naïveté) to "ordinary people"; and he was determined to seek the raison d'être of seemingly illogical behavior rather than condemning or mocking it. Through this critique, Bourdieu charts a negative philosophy that calls into question some of our most fundamental presuppositions, such as a "subject" who is free and self-aware. This philosophy, with its intellectual debt to such other "heretical" philosophers as Wittgenstein, Austin, Dewey, and Peirce, renews traditional questioning of the concepts of violence, power, time, history, the universal, and the purpose and direction of existence.
Broad, Jacqueline. Mary Astell
2002, in British Philosophers 1500–1799, P. B. Dematteis and P. Fosl (eds.). Detroit: Dictionary of Literary Biography.
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A chapter on Mary Astell in a volume of essays on British philosophers, who engaged with philosophical topics and used methods that were both different from and continuous with those that were taken up by British philosophers of the next two centuries.
Broad, Jacqueline, Barnes, Diana G.. Women and Stoic Ethics in Early Modern England
2023, Philosophy Compass 18 (6).
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This paper provides an overview of women's engagement with Stoic ethics in early modern England (c. 1600–1700). It builds on recent literature in the field by demonstrating that there is a positive gender-inclusive narrative to be told about Stoic philosophy in this time—one that incorporates women's specific concerns and responds to women's lived experiences. To support this claim, we take an interdisciplinary approach and examine several different genres of women's writing in the period, including letters, poems, plays, educational texts, and moral essays. In these writings, we argue, a distinctive conception of Stoic therapy emerges. Women embrace well-known aspects of the Stoic philosophy—such as living in agreement with nature, the importance of self-government, and the ideal of freedom from the passions—but they also allow room for the cultivation of eupatheiai or life-affirmative feelings, such as feelings of respect, affection, and good will toward other people.
Broad, Jacqueline. The Philosophy of Mary Astell: An Early Modern Theory of Virtue
2015, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Mary Astell (1666–1731) is best known today as one of the earliest English feminists. This book sheds new light on her writings by interpreting her first and foremost as a moral philosopher—as someone committed to providing guidance on how best to live. The central claim of this work is that all the different strands of Astell’s thought—her epistemology, her metaphysics, her philosophy of the passions, her feminist vision, and her conservative political views—are best understood in light of her ethical objectives. To support that claim, this work examines Astell’s programme to bring about a moral transformation of character in her fellow women. This ethical programme draws on several key aspects of seventeenth-century philosophy, including Cartesian and Neoplatonist epistemologies, ontological and cosmological proofs for the existence of God, rationalist arguments for the soul’s immateriality, and theories about how to regulate the passions in accordance with reason. At the heart of Astell’s philosophical system lies a theory of virtue, including guidelines about how to cultivate generosity of character, a benevolent disposition towards others, and the virtue of moderation. This book explains the foundations of that moral theory, and then examines how it shapes and informs Astell’s response to male tyranny within marriage and to political tyranny in the state. It concludes with some reflections on the historiographical implications of writing Mary Astell back into the history of philosophy.
Cantor, Lea, Egid, Jonathan, Merawi, Fasil (eds.). In Search of Zär’a Ya‛ǝqob: On the History, Philosophy, and Authorship of the Ḥatäta Zär’a Ya‛ǝqob and the Ḥatäta Wäldä Ḥəywät
2024, De Gruyter.
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The Ḥatäta Zärʾa Yaʿǝqob and the Ḥatäta Wäldä Ḥəywät are enigmatic and controversial works. Respectively an autobiography and a companion treatise by a disciple, they are composed in the Gǝʿǝz language and set in the highlands of Ethiopia during the seventeenth century. Expressed in prose of great power and beauty, they bear witness to pivotal events in Ethiopian history and develop a philosophical system of considerable depth. However, they have also been condemned by some as a forgery, an elaborate mystification successful in deceiving generations of European and Ethiopian scholars. This volume breaks new ground for the study of these texts, presenting a clear account of the most up-to-date scholarship the ways they works are being investigated by contemporary philosophers, philologists, and historians. While the authorship question is addressed in the volume, it is not the sole locus of discussion. The near-exclusive focus on this question over the last century has obscured scholarly interest in the texts’ philosophical and literary qualities in their own right. Accordingly, this volume begins to fill this gap, exploring the texts' implications for the global history of philosophy and transnational intellectual history of the 17th century.
Cantor, Lea. Thales – the ‘first philosopher’? A troubled chapter in the historiography of philosophy
2022, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 30(5): 727-750.
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It is widely believed that the ancient Greeks thought that Thales was the first philosopher, and that they therefore maintained that philosophy had a Greek origin. This paper challenges these assumptions, arguing that most ancient Greek thinkers who expressed views about the history and development of philosophy rejected both positions. I argue that not even Aristotle presented Thales as the first philosopher, and that doing so would have undermined his philosophical commitments and interests. Beyond Aristotle, the view that Thales was the first philosopher is attested almost nowhere in antiquity. In the classical, Hellenistic, and post-Hellenistic periods, we witness a marked tendency to locate the beginning of philosophy in a time going back further than Thales. Remarkably, ancient Greek thinkers most often traced the origins of philosophy to earlier non-Greek peoples. Contrary to the received view, then, I argue that (1) vanishingly few Greek writers pronounced Thales the first philosopher; and (2) most Greek thinkers did not even advocate a Greek origin of philosophy. Finally, I show that the view that philosophy originated with Thales (along with its misleading attribution to the Greeks in general) has roots in problematic, and in some cases manifestly racist, eighteenth-century historiography of philosophy.
Desnain, Véronique. Gabrielle Suchon: De l’éducation des femmes
2004, Seventeenth-Century French Studies, 26 (1): 259–69.
Detlefsen, Karen. Custom, Freedom, and Equality: Mary Astell on Marriage and Women’s Education
2016, in Feminist Interpretations of Mary Astell, Alice Sowaal and Penny A. Weiss (eds.). University Park, PA: Penn State University Press.
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Often referred to as a proto-feminist, early modern English philosopher and rhetorician Mary Astell was a pious supporter of monarchy who wrote about gender equality at a time when society tightly constrained female agency. This diverse collection of essays situates her ideas in feminist, historical, and philosophical contexts. Focusing on Astell's work and thought, this book explores the degree to which she can be considered a "feminist" in light of her adherence to Cartesianism, Christian theology, and Tory politics. The contributors explore the philosophical underpinnings of Astell's outspoken advocacy for the autonomy and education of women; examine the intricacies underlying her theories of power, community, and female resistance to unlawful authority; and reveal the similarities between her own philosophy of gender and sexual politics and feminist theorizing today. A broad-ranging look at one of the most important female writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, this volume will be especially valuable to students and scholars of feminist history and philosophy and the early modern era. Aside from the editors, the contributors are Kathleen A. Ahearn, Jacqueline Broad, Karen Detlefsen, Susan Paterson Glover, Marcy P. Lascano, Elisabeth Hedrick Moser, Christine Mason Sutherland, and Nancy Tuana.
Finn, Suki. De-gendering and De-sexing Motherhood
2024, Think, 23:68, 69–77.
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Each one of us who has come into this world (so far) has done so via birth. Everyone therefore has a birthing ‘parent’, but not all would consider that respective person to be their parent. For example, those who have been adopted might instead consider the person (or people) who adopted them to be their parent(s). There are, therefore, ways to become a parent that do not involve giving birth, and instances of giving birth that do not result in becoming a parent. But what about motherhood, more specifically? Must mothers be women, and must mothers have given birth? What makes a ‘mother’ – is it always and only the person who makes us? It is these questions that I explore here, in order to find a trans-inclusive approach to parental designations.
Kies, Ben. The Basis of Unity
1945, Cape Town: Non-European Unity Movement.
Kies, Ben. The Background of Segregation: Address delivered to the National Anti-CAD Conference
1943, Durban: APDUSA.
Kies, Ben. The Contribution of the Non-European Peoples to World Civilisation
1953, Cape Town: Teachers’ League of South Africa.
Klieber, Anna. Silencing Conversational Silences
2024, Hypatia.
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This paper aims to extend the discussion of silencing beyond the realm of speech and to the domain of conversational silences – that is, silences that have communicative functions in our conversational exchanges. I argue that, insofar as we can use silences to communicate, we can also be prevented from doing things with these silences. Alongside a three- fold taxonomy I show the different ways in which this can happen, utilizing and extending Maitra’s (2009) account of silencing to illustrate the wrong happening in these cases. This discussion not only highlights a new domain of silencing that has, so far, been underexplored, but also uncovers just how deep linguistic injustices can run.
Kolbrener, William, Michelson, Michal (eds.). Mary Astell: Reason, Gender, Faith
2007, Aldershot, England: Ashgate.
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Mary Astell: Reason, Gender, Faith includes essays from diverse disciplinary perspectives to consider the full range of Astell's political, theological, philosophical, and poetic writings. The volume does not eschew the more traditional scholarly interest in Astell's concerns about gender; rather, it reveals how Astell's works require attention not only for their role in the development of early modern feminism, but also for their interventions on subjects ranging from political authority to educational theory, from individual agency to divine service, and from Cartesian ethics to Lockean epistemology. Given the vast breadth of her writings, her active role within early modern political and theological debates, and the sophisticated complexity of her prose, Astell has few parallels among her contemporaries. Mary Astell: Reason, Gender, Faith bestows upon Astell the attention which she deserves not merely as a proto-feminist, but as a major figure of the early modern period.
König-Pralong, Catherine. La Colonie Philosophique: Écrire l’histoire de la philosophie aux XVIIIe-XIXe siècles
2019, Paris: Éditions EHESS.
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L’histoire de la philosophie est une invention des Lumières. En Allemagne comme en France, cette discipline nouvelle a contribué à façonner l’imaginaire occidental moderne en opérant une double colonisation savante de la pensée. Colonisation du temps, d’une part: l’Européen est considéré dorénavant comme le fruit d’une histoire longue de la pensée qui, grâce aux révolutions scientifique et morale, aboutit à l’âge de la raison, de l’autonomie et de la modernité. Colonisation de l’espace, d’autre part : les historiens de la philosophie, à l’instar des ethnologues ou des linguistes, distinguent désormais l’Europe des autres « cultures», qui deviennent le terrain des enquêtes empiriques. L’Europe est ainsi devenue, par le discours de l’histoire de la philosophie aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles, le territoire exclusif de la rationalité analytique et réflexive. La colonie philosophique propose une enquête interdisciplinaire sur ce tournant aux conséquences profondes pour la fabrique du monde contemporain. --- The history of philosophy is an invention of the Enlightenment. In Germany as in France, this new discipline helped to shape the modern Western imagination by carrying out a twofold scholarly colonisation of thought. Colonisation of time, on the one hand: the European is now seen as the fruit of a long history of thought which, thanks to the scientific and moral revolutions, led to the age of reason, autonomy and modernity. Colonisation of space, on the other hand: historians of philosophy, like ethnologists and linguists, now distinguish Europe from other 'cultures', which become the terrain of empirical investigation. Europe thus became, through the discourse of the history of philosophy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the exclusive territory of analytical and reflexive rationality. La colonie philosophique offers an interdisciplinary investigation into this turning point, which has far-reaching consequences for the making of the contemporary world.
Kusch, Martin. Psychologism: The Sociology of Philosophical Knowledge
1995, Routledge: London.
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First published in 1995. When did psychology become a distinct discipline? What links the continental and analytic traditions in philosophy? Answers to both questions are found in this extraordinary account of the debate surrounding psychologism in Germany at the turn of the century. The trajectory of twentieth century philosophy has been largely determined by this anti-naturalist view which holds that empirical research is in principle different from philosophical inquiry, and can never make significant contributions to the latter's central issues. Martin Kusch explores the origins of psychologism through the work of two major figures in the history of twentieth century philosophy, Gottlob Frege and Edmund Husserl. His sociological and historical reconstruction shows how the power struggle between the experimental psychologists and pure philosophers influenced the thought of these two philosophers, shaping their agendas and determining the success of their arguments for a sharp separation of logic from psychology. A move that was crucial in the creation of the distinct discipline of psychology and was responsible for the anti-naturalism found in both the analytic and the phenomenological traditions in philosophy. Students and lecturers in philosophy, psychology, linguistics, cognitive science and history will find this study invaluable for understanding a key moment in the intellectual history of the twentieth century.
Laclau, Ernesto. Universalism, Particularism and the Question of Identity
1995, in The Identity in Question, John Rajchman (ed.). New York: Routledge.
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As virulent nationalism increases in Europe and the debate surrounding political correctness continues to rage in the US, this volume provides a theoretical analysis of these events and the questions they raise for critical theory.
Laclau, Ernesto, Mouffe, Chantal. Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics
1985, London: Verso.
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In this hugely influential book, Laclau and Mouffe examine the workings of hegemony and contemporary social struggles, and their significance for democratic theory. With the emergence of new social and political identities, and the frequent attacks on Left theory for its essentialist underpinnings, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy remains as relevant as ever, positing a much-needed antidote against 'Third Way' attempts to overcome the antagonism between Left and Right.
Llanera, Tracy (ed.). Resilience and the Brown Babe’s Burden: Writings by Filipina Philosophers
2024, Routledge India.
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This volume examines the concept and practice of resilience from the perspective of Filipina philosophers. It investigates the double-edged nature of resilience and other key assumptions and ideas about human resilience and resilient cultures and institutions. The chapters in the collection are intersectional in approach, drawing from feminist theory, social and political philosophy, critical theory, pragmatism, virtue theory, social epistemology, and decolonial theory in their engagement of the theme. Part of the Academics, Politics and Society in the Post-Covid World series, the book will be of interest to scholars and students of philosophy, political theory, feminist theory, philosophy of education, cultural studies, and development studies. It will be valuable to academics in Philippine Studies, Asian and Southeast Asian Studies, and Global South Studies.
Major, Philippe. Structural Eurocentrism in Philosophy: An Argument for Sociometaphilosophy
2025, Metaphilosophy, 56: 83–108.
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This article has three main aims. First, it argues that the question of the inclusion of “non-Western” thought in philosophy cannot be resolved by appealing to definitions of philosophy, as such definitions are an integral part of the epistemically hegemonic practices responsible for the exclusion of non-Western thought in the first place. Second, it argues that philosophy is structurally Eurocentric. It makes this argument first by looking at metaphilosophy. It argues that metaphilosophy is primarily performative and that its performativity is a form of boundary work that is engaged in hegemonic practices of the epistemic type. It then argues that philosophy as a whole is inescapably engaged in boundary work and hegemonic practices, some of which partake in structural Eurocentrism. Finally, it promotes sociometaphilosophy, an approach that draws from the new sociology of knowledge to identify illegitimate mechanisms of exclusion inscribed in the rules that codify philosophical practice.
Martín Alcoff, Linda. Philosophy and Philosophical Practice: Eurocentrism as an epistemology of ignorance
2017, in The Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Injustice, Ian James Kidd, José Medina, and Gaile Pohlhaus, Jr. (eds.), London: Routledge.
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This chapter suggests that avoiding and denying the contextual influences on philosophical systems and trends is the work of an epistemology of ignorance. That is, transcendental illusions about the creation of philosophical ideas and the progression of philosophical debates must be cultivated and protected. Such illusions have been and continue to be functional for certain groups of philosophers, not to mention the empires that house them. The chapter also argues that Eurocentrism is more than simply a preference for a particular tradition of philosophical thought, but a practice of ensuring ignorance that perpetuates the sort of epistemic injustices that came to be consolidated in many European intellectual trends during its extended efforts to colonize the globe. Continuing to separate philosophical practice from its context obscures this fact, disabling critical reflexivity, justifying exclusivity, indeed, justifying a rather appalling ignorance about others and other intellectual traditions.
Matthews, Margaret. Gabrielle Suchon’s Theory of Knowledge
2025, Journal of Modern Philosophy, 7.
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The concept of knowledge (science) plays a central role in the work of early modern proto-feminist philosopher Gabrielle Suchon. Nevertheless, there has been no comprehensive treatment of her epistemology. This article offers the first extended analysis of Suchon’s theory of knowledge and describes the role of that theory in her arguments for the equality of men and women. I argue that Suchon combines an Aristotelian theory of knowledge and its place in the best life of contemplation with an Augustinian narrative of the Fall to conclude that women’s happiness is unjustly compromised as a result of their exclusion from the very institutions that would allow them to accomplish an essentially human task: the reparative labor of learning. I argue further that Suchon’s theory of knowledge deserves greater attention as a distinctive contribution to early modern epistemology. Suchon’s melding of Aristotelian epistemology with an Augustinian narrative of the epistemic consequences of original sin allows her to construe intellectual labor as key to the rectification of the fallen human mind. Through this emphasis on the moral value of intellectual labor, Suchon’s epistemology offers distinctive social and political implications, namely the reform of institutions that exclude women from the process of learning.
Mills, Charles W.. Through a Glass, Whitely: Ideal Theory as Epistemic Injustice
2018, Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 92: 43–77.
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Below is the audio recording of Charles W Mills’ 2017-2018 Central Division Presidential Address. The talk is titled “Through a Glass, Whitely: Ideal Theory as Epistemic Injustice” and offers an important critique of the liberal contractarian framework which John Rawls had reformulated in his A Theory of Justice (1972), and in later work. Mills argues, however, that this “ideal theory” fails to recognize itself as presupposing an ideology which, contrary to its valued transparency, has nevertheless precluded consideration of the distinctive ‘dikailogical’ problem presented by the historical presence of marginalized groups. By its failure to do so, Mills concludes, it has deceived itself by denying epistemic, testimonial, and hermeneutical justice to the very members whose exclusion is to be rectified.
O’Neill, Eileen. History of Philosophy: Disappearing Ink: Early Modern Women Philosophers and Their Fate in History
1998, in Philosophy in a Feminist Voice: Critiques and Reconstructions, Janet A. Kourany (ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
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Women are not included in the standard nineteenth- and twentieth-century histories of European philosophy as significant, original contributors to the discipline’s past. Indeed, only a few women’s names even survive in the foot-notes of these histories; by the twentieth century, most had disappeared entirely from our historical memory. But recent research, influenced by feminist theory and a renewed interest in the history of philosophy, has uncovered numerous women who contributed to philosophies over the centuries.
Park, Shelley. Mothering Queerly, Queering Motherhood: Resisting Monomaternalism in Adoptive, Lesbian, Blended, and Polygamous Families
2013, State University of New York Press.
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Bridging the gap between feminist studies of motherhood and queer theory, Mothering Queerly, Queering Motherhood articulates a provocative philosophy of queer kinship that need not be rooted in lesbian or gay sexual identities. Working from an interdisciplinary framework that incorporates feminist philosophy and queer, psychoanalytic, poststructuralist, and postcolonial theories, Shelley M. Park offers a powerful critique of an ideology she terms monomaternalism. Despite widespread cultural insistence that every child should have one-and only one-"real" mother, many contemporary family constellations do not fit this mandate. Park highlights the negative consequences of this ideology and demonstrates how families created through open adoption, same-sex parenting, divorce, and plural marriage can be sites of resistance. Drawing from personal experiences as both an adoptive and a biological mother and juxtaposing these autobiographical reflections with critical readings of cultural texts representing multi-mother families, Park advocates a new understanding of postmodern families as potentially queer coalitional assemblages held together by a mixture of affection and critical reflection premised on difference.
Pitkin, Hanna. The Concept of Representation
1967, University of California Press.
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Being concerned with representation, this book is about an idea, a concept, a word. It is primarily a conceptual analysis, not a historical study of the way in which representative government has evolved, nor yet an empirical investigation of the behavior of contemporary representatives or the expectations voters have about them. Yet, although the book is about a word, it is not about mere words, not merely about words. For the social philosopher, for the social scientist, words are not "mere"; they are the tools of his trade and a vital part of his subject matter. Since human beings are not merely political animals but also language-using animals, their behavior is shaped by their ideas. What they do and how they do it depends upon how they see themselves and their world, and this in turn depends upon the concepts through which they see. Learning what "representation" means and learning how to represent are intimately connected. But even beyond this, the social theorist sees the world through a network of concepts. Our words define and delimit our world in important ways, and this is particularly true of the world of human and social things. For a zoologist may capture a rare specimen and simply observe it; but who can capture an instance of representation (or of power, or of interest)? Such things, too, can be observed, but the observation always presupposes at least a rudimentary conception of what representation (or power, or interest) is, what counts as representation, where it leaves off and some other phenomenon begins. Questions about what representation is, or is like, are not fully separable from the question of what "representation" means. This book approaches the former questions by way of the latter.
Platzky Miller, Josh. From the ‘History of Western Philosophy’ to Entangled Histories of Philosophy: the Contribution of Ben Kies
2023, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 31(6): 1234-59
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The idea of ‘Western Philosophy’ is the product of a legitimation project for European colonialism, through to post-second world war Pan-European identity formation and white supremacist projects. Thus argues Ben Kies (1917-1979), a South African public intellectual, schoolteacher, trade unionist, and activist-theorist. In his 1953 address to the Teachers’ League of South Africa, The Contribution of the Non-European Peoples to World Civilisation, Kies became one of the first people to argue explicitly that there is no such thing as ‘Western philosophy’. In this paper, I introduce Kies as a new figure in the historiography of philosophy with important insights, relevant today. I outline his three key arguments: that ‘Western Philosophy’ is the product of political mythmaking, that it is a recent, largely mid-twentieth century fabrication, and that there is an alternative to ‘Histories of Western Philosophy’, namely ‘mixed’ or entangled histories. I show that Kies’ claims are supported both by contemporary scholarship and bibliometric analysis. I thus argue that Kies is right to claim that the idea of a distinctive, hermetically sealed ‘Western Philosophy’ is a recent, political fabrication and should be abandoned. We should instead develop global, entangled historiography to make sense of philosophy and its history today.
Platzky Miller, Josh, Cantor, Lea. The Future of the History of Philosophy
2024, The Philosopher, 111(1): 27-33.
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One way to scry the future of philosophy is to look at its past. However, the history of philosophy – both as a field of academic study and in more popular literature – tends to tell a rather narrow and parochial story. This story predominantly focuses on Europe to the exclusion of almost everywhere else. The shift away from such a bias has already begun, especially in the specialist history of philosophy literature, but there are still deeply Eurocentric assumptions built into the most influential general histories of philosophy available today. One invisible assumption, still widely adopted, is that there is such a thing as “Western Philosophy”. As we will argue, the history of philosophy – both in Europe and globally – would be better understood if we abandoned the idea of a “Western Philosophy”. To see why, we start with the most widespread narratives about philosophy’s past.
Sabourin, Charlotte. Critical Perspectives on Religion
2023, in The Routledge Handbook of Women and Early Modern European Philosophy, Karen Detlefsen and Lisa Shapiro (eds.). New York: Routledge.
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Religious references play a prominent role in early modern feminist arguments. In this chapter, I investigate two significant forms of critical appropriation of religious sources in the works of Marie de Gournay, Gabrielle Suchon, and Marguerite Buffet: first, the appropriation of canonical religious authorities to serve feminist purposes; and second, the reinterpretation of scripture, in particular the stories of the Creation and of the Fall. This allows me to show how early modern women have been using religious ideas and authorities for feminist purposes in a way that is both subversive and insightful.
Schmitter, Amy M.. Managing Mockery: Reason, Passions, and the Good Life among Early Modern Women Philosophers
2023, in The Routledge Handbook of Women and Early Modern European Philosophy, Karen Detlefsen and Lisa Shapiro (eds.). New York: Routledge
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Like many of their male counterparts, early modern women philosophers tend to take the intellectual life to be at least part of the good life. But unlike their male counterparts, they needed to make a case for it against an often hostile social environment. Censure, mockery and ridicule were simply an expected effect of publication. These are silencing techniques, but ones that can fruitfully be understood in terms of passions and affects. I will look at how several different philosophers analyze the silencing moves they confronted (looking particularly at Sor Juana de la Cruz, Mary Astell and François Poulain de la Barre). Then I will consider how they responded: e.g., by advocating the love of study on seemingly hedonist grounds (e.g., du Châtelet), or by developing strategies of retreat and emotional self-management for countering silencing and the affects it produced (e.g., Astell).
Shapiro, Lisa. The Status of Women and the Invention of Autonomy
2017, in Women and Liberty, 1600–1800: Philosophical Essays, Jacqueline Broad and Karen Detlefsen (eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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There have been many different historical-intellectual accounts of the shaping and development of concepts of liberty in pre-Enlightenment Europe. This volume is unique for addressing the subject of liberty principally as it is discussed in the writings of women philosophers, and as it is theorized with respect to women and their lives, during this period. The volume covers ethical, political, metaphysical, and religious notions of liberty, with some chapters discussing women's ideas about the metaphysics of free will, and others examining the topic of women's freedom (or lack thereof) in their moral and personal lives as well as in the public socio-political domain. In some cases, these topics are situated in relation to the emergence of the concept of autonomy in the late eighteenth century, and in others, with respect to recent feminist theorizing about relational autonomy and internalized oppression. Many of the chapters draw upon a wide range of genres, including polemical texts, poetry, plays, and other forms of fiction, as well as standard philosophical treatises. Taken as a whole, this volume shows how crucial it is to recover the too-long forgotten views of female and women-friendly male philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In the process of recovering these voices, our understanding of philosophy in the early modern period is not only expanded, but also significantly enhanced, toward a more accurate and gender-inclusive history of our discipline.
Sowaal, Alice. Mary Astell’s Serious Proposal: Mind, Method, and Custom
2007, Philosophy Compass, 2: 227–43.
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In general outline, Astell's A Serious Proposal to the Ladies is well understood. In Part I, Astell argues that women are educable, and she proposes the construction of a women's academy. In Part II, she proposes a method for the improvement of the mind. In this article, I reconstruct and contextualize Astell's arguments and proposals within her theory of mind and her account of the skeptical predicament that she sees as being endemic among women. I argue that Astell's two proposals are best understood as strategies that, when employed, will allow women to critique prejudice and custom.
Sowaal, Alice, Weiss, Penny A. (eds.). Feminist Interpretations of Mary Astell
2016, University Park, PA: Penn State University Press.
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Often referred to as a proto-feminist, early modern English philosopher and rhetorician Mary Astell was a pious supporter of monarchy who wrote about gender equality at a time when society tightly constrained female agency. This diverse collection of essays situates her ideas in feminist, historical, and philosophical contexts. Focusing on Astell’s work and thought, this book explores the degree to which she can be considered a “feminist” in light of her adherence to Cartesianism, Christian theology, and Tory politics. The contributors explore the philosophical underpinnings of Astell’s outspoken advocacy for the autonomy and education of women; examine the intricacies underlying her theories of power, community, and female resistance to unlawful authority; and reveal the similarities between her own philosophy of gender and sexual politics and feminist theorizing today. A broad-ranging look at one of the most important female writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, this volume will be especially valuable to students and scholars of feminist history and philosophy and the early modern era. Aside from the editors, the contributors are Kathleen A. Ahearn, Jacqueline Broad, Karen Detlefsen, Susan Paterson Glover, Marcy P. Lascano, Elisabeth Hedrick Moser, Christine Mason Sutherland, and Nancy Tuana.
Stanton, Domna C., Wilkin, Rebecca May. A Woman Who Defends All the Persons of Her Sex: Selected Philosophical and Moral Writings by Gabrielle Suchon – Volume Editors’ Introduction
2010, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
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During the oppressive reign of Louis XIV, Gabrielle Suchon (1632–1703) was the most forceful female voice in France, advocating women’s freedom and self-determination, access to knowledge, and assertion of authority. This volume collects Suchon’s writing from two works—Treatise on Ethics and Politics (1693) and On the Celibate Life Freely Chosen; or, Life without Commitments (1700)—and demonstrates her to be an original philosophical and moral thinker and writer. Suchon argues that both women and men have inherently similar intellectual, corporeal, and spiritual capacities, which entitle them equally to essentially human prerogatives, and she displays her breadth of knowledge as she harnesses evidence from biblical, classical, patristic, and contemporary secular sources to bolster her claim. Forgotten over the centuries, these writings have been gaining increasing attention from feminist historians, students of philosophy, and scholars of seventeenth-century French literature and culture. This translation, from Domna C. Stanton and Rebecca M. Wilkin, marks the first time these works will appear in English.
Suchon, Gabrielle. A Woman Who Defends All the Persons of Her Sex: Selected Philosophical and Moral Writings
2010, Domna C. Stanton and Rebecca May Wilkin (eds). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
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During the oppressive reign of Louis XIV, Gabrielle Suchon (1632–1703) was the most forceful female voice in France, advocating women’s freedom and self-determination, access to knowledge, and assertion of authority. This volume collects Suchon’s writing from two works—Treatise on Ethics and Politics (1693) and On the Celibate Life Freely Chosen; or, Life without Commitments (1700)—and demonstrates her to be an original philosophical and moral thinker and writer. Suchon argues that both women and men have inherently similar intellectual, corporeal, and spiritual capacities, which entitle them equally to essentially human prerogatives, and she displays her breadth of knowledge as she harnesses evidence from biblical, classical, patristic, and contemporary secular sources to bolster her claim. Forgotten over the centuries, these writings have been gaining increasing attention from feminist historians, students of philosophy, and scholars of seventeenth-century French literature and culture. This translation, from Domna C. Stanton and Rebecca M. Wilkin, marks the first time these works will appear in English.
Sumner, Claude. Classical Ethiopian Philosophy
1994, Addis Ababa: Commercial Print. Press.
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Presents the basic texts of Ethiopian philosophy, each preceded by a specific introduction. Also includes a general introduction which emphasizes the place held by philosophy in Ethiopia from the fifth to eighteenth century. This introduction also determines the philosophical contribution of Ethiopia in relation to the thought of traditional wisdom throughout the African continent.
Taylor, Derek. Are You Experienced? Astell, Locke, and Education
2007, in Mary Astell: Reason, Gender, Faith, William Kolbrener and Michal Michelson (eds.). Aldershot, England: Ashgate.
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Mary Astell: Reason, Gender, Faith includes essays from diverse disciplinary perspectives to consider the full range of Astell's political, theological, philosophical, and poetic writings. The volume does not eschew the more traditional scholarly interest in Astell's concerns about gender; rather, it reveals how Astell's works require attention not only for their role in the development of early modern feminism, but also for their interventions on subjects ranging from political authority to educational theory, from individual agency to divine service, and from Cartesian ethics to Lockean epistemology. Given the vast breadth of her writings, her active role within early modern political and theological debates, and the sophisticated complexity of her prose, Astell has few parallels among her contemporaries. Mary Astell: Reason, Gender, Faith bestows upon Astell the attention which she deserves not merely as a proto-feminist, but as a major figure of the early modern period.
Van Norden, Brian W.. Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto
2017, New York: Columbia University Press.
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Are American colleges and universities failing their students by refusing to teach the philosophical traditions of China, India, Africa, and other non-Western cultures? This biting and provocative critique of American higher education says yes. Even though we live in an increasingly multicultural world, most philosophy departments stubbornly insist that only Western philosophy is real philosophy and denigrate everything outside the European canon. In Taking Back Philosophy, Bryan W. Van Norden lambastes academic philosophy for its Eurocentrism, insularity, and complicity with nationalism and issues a ringing call to make our educational institutions live up to their cosmopolitan ideals. In a cheeky, agenda-setting, and controversial style, Van Norden, an expert in Chinese philosophy, proposes an inclusive, multicultural approach to philosophical inquiry. He showcases several accessible examples of how Western and Asian thinkers can be brought into productive dialogue, demonstrating that philosophy only becomes deeper as it becomes increasingly diverse and pluralistic. Taking Back Philosophy is at once a manifesto for multicultural education, an accessible introduction to Confucian and Buddhist philosophy, a critique of the ethnocentrism and anti-intellectualism characteristic of much contemporary American politics, a defense of the value of philosophy and a liberal arts education, and a call to return to the search for the good life that defined philosophy for Confucius, Socrates, and the Buddha. Building on a popular New York Times opinion piece that suggested any philosophy department that fails to teach non-Western philosophy should be renamed a “Department of European and American Philosophy,” this book will challenge any student or scholar of philosophy to reconsider what constitutes the love of wisdom.
Walsh, Julie. Gabrielle Suchon, Freedom, and the Neutral Life
2019, International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 27 (5): 685–712.
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A central project of Enlightenment thought is to ground claims to natural freedom and equality. This project is the foundation of Suchon’s view of freedom. But it is not the whole story. For, Suchon’s focus is not just natural freedom, but also the necessary and sufficient conditions for oppressed members of society, women, to avail themselves of this freedom. In this paper I, first, treat Suchon’s normative argument for women’s right to develop their rational minds. In Section 2, I consider Suchon’s three necessary and sufficient conditions for freedom and the manners in which women are blocked from meeting them. The normative argument together with the obstacles to women meeting the conditions for freedom raises the question of how to get women into a position where they can enjoy the freedom to which they are entitled. In Section 3, I outline Suchon’s answer: women must live a life without attachment. I argue this answer situates Suchon both chronologically and theoretically between the Béguines, a medieval women’s spiritual movement, and twentieth-century feminist separatism. I conclude that Suchon’s view of freedom is radical, both for its time and ours, and deserves greater attention from historians of philosophy and of feminist thought.
Walsh, Julie. Gabrielle Suchon on Women’s Freedom
2023, in The Routledge Handbook of Women and Early Modern European Philosophy, Karen Detlefsen and Lisa Shapiro (eds.). New York: Routledge.
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French philosopher Gabrielle Suchon (1632–1703) was one of few early modern philosophers writing for and about women. This chapter examines Suchon’s writings on women’s freedom, articulating a tension for Suchon: while women have a natural right to freedom, due to present social conditions most women cannot be free. On Suchon’s account, freedom consists in knowledge, non-domination, and independence. But lack of education, women’s typical vocations as wives or nuns, and internalized sexism prevent most women from fully achieving freedom. Finally, the chapter examines Suchon’s radical proposal for a type of life that is free: the celibate or neutral life.
Weiss, Penny A.. Locations and Legacies: Reading Mary Astell and Re-Reading the Canon
2016, in Feminist Interpretations of Mary Astell, Alice Sowaal and Penny A. Weiss (eds.). University Park, PA: Penn State University Press.
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About this book: Often referred to as a proto-feminist, early modern English philosopher and rhetorician Mary Astell was a pious supporter of monarchy who wrote about gender equality at a time when society tightly constrained female agency. This diverse collection of essays situates her ideas in feminist, historical, and philosophical contexts. Focusing on Astell’s work and thought, this book explores the degree to which she can be considered a “feminist” in light of her adherence to Cartesianism, Christian theology, and Tory politics. The contributors explore the philosophical underpinnings of Astell’s outspoken advocacy for the autonomy and education of women; examine the intricacies underlying her theories of power, community, and female resistance to unlawful authority; and reveal the similarities between her own philosophy of gender and sexual politics and feminist theorizing today. A broad-ranging look at one of the most important female writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, this volume will be especially valuable to students and scholars of feminist history and philosophy and the early modern era.