Ancient Women Philosophers

Recovered Ideas and New Perspectives

Katharine R. O'Reilly, Caterina Pellò

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN:
  9781009033688
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Ancient & Classical Philosophy

Despite the common misconception that ancient philosophy was the domain of male thinkers, sources confirm that ancient women engaged in philosophical activity. Bringing together a collection of essays on ancient women thinkers, with special focus on their ideas and contributions to the history of philosophy, this volume is about the earliest women philosophers, their breakthroughs, and the methods we can use to excavate them. The essays survey the methodological strategies we can use to approach the surviving evidence, retrieve the largely unresearched thought and the original ideas of ancient women philosophers, and carve out a space for them in the canon. The broad focus includes women thinkers in ancient Indian, Chinese, and Arabic philosophy as well as in the Greek and Roman philosophical traditions. The volume will be valuable for a wide range of researchers, teachers, and students of ancient philosophy.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction: The Value of Women Philosophers for the History of Philosophy
• Chapter 1 Beyond Gender: The Voice of Diotima
• Chapter 2 Sulabha and Indian Philosophy: Rhetoric, Gender, and Freedom in the Mahabharata
• Chapter 3 Women's Medical Knowledge in Antiquity: Beyond Midwifery
• Chapter 4 Ancient Women Epicureans and Their Anti-Hedonist Critics
• Chapter 5 Arete of Cyrene and the Role of Women in Philosophical Lineage
• Chapter 6 Women at the Crossroads: Life and Death for the Stoic Wife
• Chapter 7 Pythagorean Women and the Domestic as a Philosophical Topic
• Chapter 8 Perictione, Mother of Metaphysics: A New Philosophical Reading of On Wisdom
• Chapter 9 Not Veiled in Silence: The Case for Macrina
• Chapter 10 Women Philosophers and Ideals of Being a Woman in Neoplatonic Schools of Late Antiquity: The Examples of Sosipatra of Ephesus and Hypatia of Alexandria
• Chapter 11 Reappraising Ban Zhao: The Advent of Chinese Women Philosophers
• Chapter 12 The Reception of Plato on Women: Proclus, Averroes, Marinella
• References
• Index