The last thirty years have witnessed a gender revolution in the drive to restore
women to view in all aspects of intellectual life. Women’s history has grown
exponentially and feminist philosophy has flourished. In their wake interest in
women philosophers of the past has increased steadily. The pioneering work of
women like Eileen O’Neill, Mary Ellen Waithe, and Therese Boos Dykeman means
that it is no longer credible to deny that there were significant numbers of female
philosophers in the past or that they had anything philosophically interesting to say.
The purpose of this informal network is to encourage greater exchange between scholars working in Turkey and other European countries on women philosophers at any period in history, and to enable them to join in with the great debates currently taking place in the rest of the world. We will use this page to exchange news and ideas about workshops, conferences, resources, publication projects and grant proposals
New Narratives in the History of Philosophy aims to develop new narratives of our philosophical past that centrally include women thinkers, and thereby to reconfigure, enrich and reinvigorate the philosophical canon, focusing on the early modern period (roughly 1560-1810).
The New Narratives in the History of Philosophy project is led by Lisa Shapiro, a Professor of Philosophy at Simon Fraser University, Marguerite Deslauriers, Professor of Philosophy at McGill University, and Karen Detlefsen, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. We are collaborating with other historians of philosophy in Canada, the US, Australia, and Europe (including the UK, Finland, Turkey, Sweden, the Netherlands, and France.
Project Vox concerns the next major scholarly development: the acknowledgement that a number of early modern women have been unjustly ignored in our narratives. From Lady Masham, Margaret Cavendish and Anne Conway in England to Émilie Du Châtelet in France, many women played significant roles in the development of modern philosophy, but their contributions have often gone unnoticed. The website has three primary goals. First, it seeks to provide students at all levels with the materials they need to begin exploring the rich philosophical ideas of Cavendish, Conway, Du Châtelet and Masham. Second, it aims to provide teachers with the material they need to incorporate these four figures into their courses. Third and finally, it aims to help transform our current conception of the canon. Please view the full project statement here.
Distributing information about scholarly work on history of philosophy that focuses on the writings of women - books, cfps,conferences, etc.
Feminist philosophy, more than most areas of philosophy, needs to be informed by real-world information and examples. One of our goals is to help feminist philosophers keep up with philosophically relevant facts and examples. Of course, there’s far more than we could ever hope to cover, but at least this is a start. By using ‘categories’, one can easily find useful examples for teaching and research. We’re also hoping that feminists who aren’t philosophers may find some philosophical reflections and references helpful and interesting. And, sometimes, we’ll just post things that are good for a laugh. Because we all need that. Do let us know if you think there’s something we should be covering that we’re not, by clicking on the ‘contact’ category. We’ll see what we can do.