Ten great female philosophers: The thinking woman's women

[emad]

Ten great female philosophers: The thinking woman's women

Radio 4's 'Greatest Philosopher' poll yielded an all-male Top 20. But is philosophy really a female-free zone? On the contrary, insists Camille Paglia - and here are 10 to prove the point
Published: 14 July 2005

For most of history, the groundbreaking philosophers have all been men, and philosophy has always been a male genre. Women had neither the education nor the time to pursue the life of the mind. In modern times, especially in the past 200 years, women have made immense cultural contributions - but much more to literature and the arts than to philosophy. Their absence from the BBC Radio 4's "Great Philosophers" poll needs to be explained.

I feel women in general are less comfortable than men in inhabiting a highly austere, cold, analytical space, such as the one which philosophy involves. Women as a whole - and there are obvious exceptions - are more drawn to practical, personal matters. It is not that they inherently lack a talent or aptitude for philosophy or higher mathematics, but rather that they are more unwilling than men to devote their lives to a frigid space from which the natural and the human have been eliminated.

Now that women have at last gained access to higher education, we are waiting to see what they can achieve in the fields where men have distinguished themselves, above all in philosophy. At the moment, however, the genre of philosophy is not flourishing; systematic reasoning no longer has the prestige or cultural value that it once had. The entire way we approach the world has changed. Philosophy once claimed to provide a rigorous method to search for the meaning of life, and it was a precious substitute for dogmatic religion. But in modern times, religion among the educated classes in Europe and North America has lost ground, and intellectuals are neglecting the basic human need to find answers. Philosophers are now at the margin. Philosophy has shrunk in reputation and stature - it's an academic exercise.

The last truly important movement in the world of philosophy was existentialism, in the post-war Paris of Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Simone de Beauvoir. There have been theories of language since then, but without the profound insight of the best philosophy. Post-structuralism and post-modernism, by their slippery relativism, have destroyed the concept of philosophy. No one cares about philosophers - cultural criticism has come to the fore. Media and glitzy pop culture dominate now, and people need help to negotiate and survive it.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article299061.ece

[wurzel]

1. Perhaps what happened to Hypatia cured women of philosophy?

The only ones I can think of off-hand are Rand, Arendt and Murdoch. But I'm not sure even these would qualify as "philosophers" rather than "social thinkers" and "writers". Like Sonntag.
But good old Karl Marx got top ranking. There is hope yet. He may not have had the cure, but his diagnosis of the social pathology of Capitalism was spot on. Most Americans have no idea what a "moral" philosopher Marx was. Along with Darwin, Marx should be taught in all high schools.

[Swamp Rat]

2. my mom is an existentialist philosopher

sometimes :D

[tishaLA]

3. So sorry to hear Paglia bashing current female philosophers

I guess it's because they have little time for her academic "achievements." Suffice it to say, there are many good philosophers, both men and women, who have written important (and indeed profound) works in the past 50 years, including in linguistics and postmodernism/poststructuralism, but they don't have Paglia's ideological blessings. Oh well.

And it's somewhat xenocentric to think that nobody cares about philosophers now; Foucault's, Derrida's, and Deleuze's deaths were all front page news in Le Monde and lead stories on France 2 news. Perhaps in America, where media and glitzy pop culture dominate, Paglia failed to notice this.

[nashville_brook]

4. i'm a philosophy grad and masters EBT in social theory

and ain't i a woman...

sorry, couldn't help myself.

i've never been a huge fan of paglia. i was into the nietzschean/dionysian debate way before she came along and took her seriously for about five minutes b/c of her work in that vein. i didn't want to pay for the whole article, so i'm just going to briefly comment on the intro above.

paglia is quite the sexist herself. she only holds women in esteem so far as they adopt her macho swagger. i believe her meteoric rise was the result of her playing the boys' game, instead of contributing to a true womens' debate. just b/c women aren't interested in positivism doesn't make them any less philosophers. there's plenty of men who have set that project aside.

philosphy hasn't shrunk, it's expanded beyond the fake boundaries of the academy. if you want to have an impact on the world in terms of intellectual pursuit -- finding answers? since when do philosophers find answers? we ask questions -- we go into cultural production. we write books. form bands. camp out in Crawford. publish newspapers (which was my pursuit after recovering from my education).

smart girls know the academy is a dead end. smart girls know the world is full of real issues and real people and real life. we've moved on and put our philosophy out there where it will be seen and heard by others.