CultPhil: Cultures of Philosophy: Women Writing Knowledge in Early Modern Europe
Lead Research Organisation:
UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
Department Name: Modern Languages
Abstract
Where are the women philosophers in the history of philosophy? This is not a new question, nor has it been left unaddressed; however, CultPhil proposes a new way of responding to it that will transform our understanding of the history of philosophy. Focussing on seventeenth-century Europe, the project investigates what I am calling 'cultures of philosophy' to produce a more inclusive, contextually-defined approach to women's philosophical writing from the period. Such cultures include genres not usually considered to be philosophical (such as periodicals, salon poetry, marginalia); the circulation and exchange of philosophical writing by women; transnational dynamics of authority and collectivity; and ideas about the identity of a female philosopher. Exploring these
cultures will a) allow us to move beyond reliance on the philosophical treatise as the main principle for inclusion in the canon, and b) enable analysis of the sociological conditions of learning that were both restrictive and enabling for women writers. The project argues that those conditions-from education to the problem posed by the female intellectual-shaped both philosophical writing by women and the processes that have rendered that writing less visible.
As part of the project's comparative approach, it will examine four case studies, France, England, Italy and the Dutch Republic, across three research strands. The first strand looks at 'Genres', and, to maximise analysis, concentrates on the sub-discipline of natural philosophy, the domain closest to science and most inaccessible to women. The second strand, 'Exchanges', takes a transnational approach to women's knowledge production and its historiography. The third strand, 'Identities', analyses the figure of the female philosopher. CultPhil aims to understand how sociological conditions inflected philosophical writing by women; to interrogate processes of historiographical invisibility; and to challenge the philosophical canon.
cultures will a) allow us to move beyond reliance on the philosophical treatise as the main principle for inclusion in the canon, and b) enable analysis of the sociological conditions of learning that were both restrictive and enabling for women writers. The project argues that those conditions-from education to the problem posed by the female intellectual-shaped both philosophical writing by women and the processes that have rendered that writing less visible.
As part of the project's comparative approach, it will examine four case studies, France, England, Italy and the Dutch Republic, across three research strands. The first strand looks at 'Genres', and, to maximise analysis, concentrates on the sub-discipline of natural philosophy, the domain closest to science and most inaccessible to women. The second strand, 'Exchanges', takes a transnational approach to women's knowledge production and its historiography. The third strand, 'Identities', analyses the figure of the female philosopher. CultPhil aims to understand how sociological conditions inflected philosophical writing by women; to interrogate processes of historiographical invisibility; and to challenge the philosophical canon.
