The Neglected Canon: Nine Women Philosophers: First to the Twentieth Century

356 Pages·1999·10.75 MB·English

by  Therese Boos Dykeman (auth.)

THE NEGLECTED CANON:
NINE WOMEN PHILOSOPHERS
FIRST TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
The Neglected Canon:
Nine Women Philosophers
First to the Twentieth Century
Edited by
Therese Boos Dykeman
Philosophy Dept.,
Fairfield University,
Fairfield, U.S.A.
SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
ISBN 978-90-481-5314-5 ISBN 978-94-017-3400-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-3400-4
Printed on acid~free paper
All Rights Reserved
© 1999 Springer Science+ Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1999
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner.
v
Dedicated to my family of choice and fortune,
John, Andria, and Kristen,
and in memory of Dee Wegman
"Minerva teach me all thy days to tell"
Atheism 1767
Phillis Wheatley
Vll
Contents
Foreword ix
Preface XI
Acknowledgments X Ill
Introduction XV
First Century, C. E. 1
I. Pan Chao (c.45/51-114/120) 5
Lessons for Women 13
Bibliography 29
Twelfth Century 31
II. He/oise(1100-1163) 39
Letters of Heloise to Abelard 51
Bibliography 69
Fourteenth Century: Before and After 73
III. Marie le Jars de Gournay (1565-1645) 81
The Equality of Men and Women 89
Complaints of Women 100
Bibliography 105
Seventeenth Century 109
IV. Anna Maria van Schurman (1607-1679) 115
The Learned Maid 123
Bibliography 139
V. Mary Astell (1666-1731) 143
A Serious Proposal 151
Bibliography 163
VI. Sor Juana Jnes de Ia Cruz 1648-1695) 167
First Dream 175
Bibliography 203
Eighteenth Century 207
VII. Judith Sargent Murray ( 1751-1820) 215
On the Equality of the Sexes 225
Observations on Female Abilities 233
Bibliography 263
viii Contents
Nineteenth Century 269
VIII. Frances Wright ( 1795-1852) 277
The Nature of Knowledge 285
Of Free Inquiry 301
Bibliography 315
IX. Antoinette Brown Blackwell 321
Sex and Evolution 331
Bibliography 357
Conclusion 361
Index 363
ix
Foreword
When down from the moon stepped the goddess of the night, she bid
Minerva/Athene come to her. "Minerva/Athene," she said, "you sprang fully
formed from the head of your father. Now all the daughters of mankind think
they, too, are as rootless as you. Tonight I bid you dance, join the circle round
that tree glistening with the clarity of wisdom. Mother Natura1 and Lady
Philosophia, hands together, already have begun the promenade of myth and
allegory."
Still in the garb of gold and white stone, Minerva/A thene did as she was
bid and danced till dawn. Then in new light, she found herself suddenly a
budding flower on a tall branch, and even more swiftly a crystalline fruit, rivaling
the morning sun, refracting the light. Behold, she had grown roots, difficult to
discover down in the dark of history, deep in the solid knowledge of earth. And
the daughters of humankind saw and reveled in their roots.
This is the story of this book, a history, long and diverse, of women
thinkers and their thought. It will become a legacy for all who study it, a legacy
that Heloi"se, Marie de Gournay, Sor Juana Ines de Ia Cruz, and Judith Sargent
Murray among many women philosophers assured by composing lists of the
names of women little acknowledged century after century. While the Hannah
Arendt's, Susanne K. Langer's, and all the present day women philosophers are
deservedly making their way onto the library shelves, we still see the shelves of
philosophy with but few women's texts. So, until, in the midst of the many male
thinkers, there are included those followers of Minerva/Athene who have given
us our roots, women and men will little acknowledge the reality of the efforts of
women's minds.
Poets prove the long and diverse legacy of women and the love of
wisdom:
From Sumeria Enheduanna (c. 2300 B.C.E.) Inanna's prayer: "He gave
me truth";
1 In the Middle Ages, some philosophers, as Peter Dronke has pointed out, gave "Mother Nature" a
philosophical name conceptualizing her as not only the caretaker of the cosmos but co~reator. "Lady
Philosophy," unusually animated by Boethius, was a common image of a woman teacher of wisdom in
the Middle Ages.
x Forword
From Arabia/Ethiopia Makeda, Queen of Sheba (c.IOOO B.C.E.)
"Wisdom is sweeter than honey ... ";
From India Sumangalamata, Therigatha (6th c. BC. .E.) "Meditating
thus, I am happy, I am serene."
This text proves women's long pursuit of wisdom.
While you may fmd the mentioning of so many philosophers in the
historical perspectives bewildering, my rationale is that the many names and
theories will appeal to a wide range of interests and offer possibilities for further
investigation on women philosophers.
The author
xi
Preface
From fragments and completed writings we have learned that thinking
women from antiquity forward have chafed under mental restrictions placed upon
them, and that among these women thinkers, there have always been philosophers.
This text provides philosophy of nine women from China to modem Europe and
America who formulated feminist philosophy as they advanced their individual
philosophical arguments-metaphysics to political theory. This text can be taught
as a course on women philosophers, or as a supplement to such courses in
philosophy as epistemology or feminism.
The text follows in this order: a brief context of the philosophy of the
particular time period, a chronology, an introduction to the philosopher and her
work, the work itself and a bibliography. This format is generally repeated for each
philosopher, first to the twentieth centuries. The historical contexts establish
pertinent philosophical milieus for the anthologized works. Each history focuses
on an additional woman to compare to the philosopher whose works are presented
in the text: Hildegard the Medieval, Christine de Pisan the early Renaissance,
Anne Bradstreet seventeenth century, Mercy Otis Warren eighteenth century, and
Ednah Dow Cheney nineteenth. These additional philosophers and the
bibliographies for the nine anthologized philosophers, provide the student with
materials for research. It is because the nine philosophers are little known, or little
known as philosophers, that a chronology and a biography as well as analysis of
their philosophical orientation precede their work or works. But it is also that these
lives inform at least the feminism in the works if not the other philosophical issues.