An interesting revolution is taking place on the Nexistential timeline. I don't have a lot of attention for writing at the moment as I am stooped deep in voracious reading. This is a necessary quick note relevant to the evolution of contemporary turn-of-the-twenty-first-century philosophical perception. A quick list of books and quotes.The femme philosopher library has opened up to me. Thanks to this Saturday's theme at the Philosophy Club being Women Philosophers. The philosopher had laid out several books on a table in the back. I chose four.
As a young woman in the 1990s, I rejected knowledge as it was presented to me, including philosphy, because it only portrayed men. Thus, instead of studying philosophy, in the 2000s, I began to create my own. Decades later, the tables have finally turned. To be fair, I did experience glimpses of female philosophical thought. Sometimes still confined to patriarchal perceptions while seeking to break free. The following four books reveal the experienes, ideas, thoughts and feelings of other women philosophers. Not only in books, female thinkers abound. Thank God.
2020. The Philosopher Queens. Edited by Rebecca Buxton and Lisa Whiting. Unbound, London.
"The history of philosophy has not done women justice. To see this, you only have to look at some of the recent books published on the topic. In Philosophy: 100 Essential Thinkers only two women feature, with Mary Wollstonecraft and Simone de Beauvoir taking the seats of honour. In The Great Philosophers: From Socrates to Turing, no women made the cut. Each chapter in the particular book was written by a contemporary philosopher, all of whom are also men. At the time of writing, a newly published book by A.C. Grayling, boldly titled The History of Philosophy, includes no sections on women philosphers. The book does include a three-and-a-half page review of 'Feminist Philosophy' in which only one woman philosopher - Martha Nussbaum - is mentioned by name. You're beginning to sense a theme.
It's important to note that this gap is not due to a lack of books being published about philosophy generally. On the contrary, accessible texts are being written on an incredibly broad range of topics, such as Golf and Philosophy: Lessond from the Links, Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington, and last but cecrtainly not least, Surfing with Sartre. And yet, very little has been written to celebrate the work of great women philosophers. ONe notable exception was written by a great philosopher herself, Baroness Mary Warnock, who wrote Women Philosophers over twenty years ago.
It is of course true that women hace been under-represented in philosophy, and indeed most of academia, because they were excluded from education. ... This institutional exclusion meant that women were prescibed roles in society that kept their thiking, and their freedom, to a minimum.
But this is 2019 and things have certainly improved over the past century. More women are taking degrees in philosophy than ever before, with most universities now seeing higher numbers of women than men in their undergraduate classes. In spite of this progress, there is still a huge gender disparity higher up in the pecking order. There are very few philosophy departments where women make up anywahere near 50 per cent of faculty staff. ... So, even though more young women are taking their first dive into the man's world of philosophy than ever before, this is not quickly translating into more at the top. ... Non-white women are still hugely under-presented in philosophy, with very few positions filled with people from minority backgrounds. In her New York Times interview, 'The Pain and Promise of Black Women in Philosophy', Professor Anita L. Allen noted that only 1 per cent of full-time philosophyprofessors in the US are Black, whilst around 17 per cent are women." (pp. 1-3)
2021. Women of Ideas - interviews from Philosophy Bites. Edited by Suki Finn. Oxford University Press, United Kingdom.
"Men of Ideas was a 1978 BBC television series in which presenter Bryan Magee interviewed noted philosophers of the time. Of course, it was not just men who had ideas. Yet only one contributor on the series was a woman (albeit a very noble choice): Iris Murdoch.
Forty years later, some things have changed for the better and there is much to celebrate. But still, a 2018 survey [...] showed only 29.7 per cent of philosophers employed in UK universities were women. This is the lowest representation of women in any discipline outside of science, technology, and engineering. ...
Women of Ideas collates interviews from the podcast Philosophy Bites...
There were around one hundred episodes of Philosophy Bites interviews in the archive covering interesting topics by inspiring women. ... Regretfully, given the underrepresentation and marginalisation of various racial and ethnic groups, people from working-class backgrounds, the LGBTQIA+ community, and those with disabilities in philosophy, for example, there are demographics that are not adequeately represented here. This book cannot then be considered as providing comprehensive coveradge of women's voices in philosophy, or of women's ideas! ... it should be treated more akin to a 'tasting menu'. Yet it is my hope -and plan- that future edited collections, line-ups, syllabi, and what we treat as the 'canon' in philosophy will be more inclusive and representational of the diversity of people and positions within philosophy.
... I asked the interviewees what it is like being a woman in philosophy [...]. T.he answers are diverse. ... the category of 'woman' is diverse [...] Overall, as this book demonstrates, those who have ideas are diverse, the ideas that they have are diverse, and the experiences that they have are diverse." (Preface)
2022. Metaphysical Animals - How Four Women Brought Philsophy Back To Life. By Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman. Penguin Random House UK, London. First American Edition. Doubleday, New York.
"The history of European philosophy is usually constructed from the work of men. In their irresistible intellectual history, [the authors] offer a compelling alternative: the story of four women who created a philosophical revolution to counter the darkness of their times.
Elizabeth Anscomb, Mary Midgely, Philippa Foot, and future novelist Iris Murdoch arrived at Oxford to study philosophy in the 1930s, when the world was again on the brink of war. Mary Midgely emerged, pragmatic and attentive, from a rectory; impatient and restless, Irish-born Iris Murdoch made everyone fall in love with her; Elizabeth Anscombe was a Catholic convert and a student of Wittgenstein; Philippa Foot was brilliant and aristocratic, the granddaughter of an American president.
The four came of age during years of tumultuous events: Nazism, the Holocaust, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The philosophy of the day -much of it arid and technical- struck them as inadequate for this new human reality of limitless depravity and destructive power. With most male undergraduates (and many tutors) conscripted, the four friends felt free to craft their own response. Their answer was to bring philosphy back to everyday human life. We are metaphysical animals, they realized, creatures that can question their very being. Who am I? What is freedom? What is human goodness? The answers we give, they believed, shape what we will become." (cover)
2023. How to Think Like a Woman. By Regan Penaluna. Grove Press, New York, United Staes of America. Published simultaneously in Canada.
""In a world in which philosophy is not only sexist in underestimating women's actual and potential contributions, but actively misogynistic in pushing women out of the field, we need this book. [It] is at once a deeply personal and philosophically riveting meditation on four brilliant and inspiring female philosophers -Mary Astell, Damaris Masham, Wollstonecraft, and Catharine Cockburn- that I learned so much from. a must-read for anyone who cares about what happens to women, young and old, in this needlessly and harmfully male-dominated profession"
- Kate Manne, author of Entitled: How Male Priviledge Hurts Women
In How to Think Like a Woman, Penaluna blends memoir, biography, and criticism to tell these women's stories, weaving throughout an alternative history of philosophy as well as her own search for love and truth. Funne, honest, and wickedly intelligent, this is a searing look at the author's experience of patriarchy and sexism in academia, and a moving meditation on what philosophy could look like if women were treated equally." (cover)
* * * * *
Philosophical Tragedies 1
Did Edmund Husserl reject Edith Stein to protect her?
He still couldn't save her.
Tragedy: Holocaust, Edith Stein dies in Auschwitz in 1942.
Philosophical Tragedies 2
Since they had been lovers,
did Martin Heidegger try to protect Hannah Arendt?
Tragedy: He was a Nazi. She was racist.
* * * * *
I closed a week of physical training with really sore pecs (Pectoralis Major muscles). The right one hurting in every position. Coincidentally, the right breast is bigger than the left. The left side of the body continues to exhibit some type of numbness here and there. Only with great calm focus can I sense the activation of all the bands. I scaled back the martial arts. Ashtanga yoga is kicking my ass. Biceps and triceps burning as well. Tits feel like a cruel additional weight that intensifies the pectoral pain with every step, twist, turn, and even just standing, sitting or lying down. The weight is always there.
I have also decided that from now on I will refrain from all great activity during my intensive bleeding days. And see what happens.
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