Feminist Romp Through the History of Philosophy

Feminist Interpretations series book covers — Descartes, Hegel, Heidegger, Beauvoir

Starting Thursday, July 2 (time of day TBA)

I’ll be leading a group through my Feminist Romp Through the History of Western Philosophy. We’ll use the Re-Reading the Canon series (edited by Nancy Tuana for Penn State Press) to pair (mostly) dead white men with the feminist thinkers who talked back.

Plato: In Book V of The Republic, Plato argues for the inclusion of women in all the classes of his ideal polis. According to Plato, Socrates’ teacher was a woman, and Socrates attributes his knowledge of love to a woman, Diotima. Were Plato and Socrates feminist? (Spoiler alert: nope!) Elizabeth Spelman, Page duBois, and Luce Irigaray help us sort it out.
Aristotle: Yes, he was wrong on the biology and thought women were “under-cooked” men — but did you know his key concepts of “form” and “matter” are gendered too? We’ll look at the physics and metaphysics of gender with the help of Nancy Tuana, Julie K. Ward, and Judith Butler.
Descartes: The mind/body dualism at the heart of Modern Philosophy relegates women to material immanence (body), but did you know Descartes’ main interlocutor was a woman, Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia? We’ll look at the feminist recovery of their letters, and feminist critiques of objectivity and dualism with Susan Bordo and Genevieve Lloyd.
Hume: One of the few philosophers who has taken the emotions seriously, Hume has long been a resource for feminists wanting to value feelings as part of thinking and being human. Anne Jacobson and Annette Baier are our guides.
Kant: He argued for principled action, but seems to think women are not fully capable of rational choice. We’ll see about that. Robin May Schott, Sarah Kofman, and Sally Sedgwick take us on this bumpy ride.
Hegel: In the tradition of “let’s spit on Hegel,” we’ll take a fresh look at Carla Lonzi’s essay as well as Hegel’s reading of Antigone as fertile ground for feminist interventions. Patricia Jagentowicz Mills, Carla Lonzi, and Naomi Schor lead the way.
Heidegger and Arendt: Father of existential phenomenology, his being-towards-death has appealed to many generations of angsty teens. Hannah Arendt will help us rethink Heidegger with her radical concept of natality. Also in play are readings by Patricia Huntington, Iris Marion Young, and Mechthild Nagel.
Merleau-Ponty: Embodiment. A treasure to feminists everywhere. Boring to read, but one of the most exciting thinkers for feminism. Dorothea Olkowski and Gail Weiss lead the way.
Beauvoir: She came late to feminism, and had some … quirks. What do later feminists think of her work? Margaret Simons will help us sort it out with the help of Debra Bergoffen, Michele Le Doeuff, and Jo-Ann Pilardi.

About Mona Mona

Mona Mona holds a PhD in Continental Philosophy and has over a decade of teaching experience. She works at the intersection of phenomenology, feminist philosophy, and the history of Western Philosophy.

Long before “content” was a thing, Mona was organizing philosophy salons, running feminist reading groups, and hosting a philosophy podcast. She is the creator of Feminist Works, a weekly roundup of feminist writing, and writes at Philosophy Publics, where she brings philosophical frames of thinking to contemporary life.