Exploring the Contributions of Women in the History of Philosophy, Science, and Literature, Throughout Time (Women in the History of Philosophy and Sciences, 20)

✍ Scribed by Chelsea C. Harry (editor), George N. Vlahakis (editor)

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 2023
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 205
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book explores contributions by some of the most influential women in the history of philosophy, science, and literature. Ranging from Sappho and Sophie Germain to Stebbing and Evelyn Fox Keller, this work ultimately demonstrates the impact these non-canonical, sometimes unknown or hidden, sources had, or may have had, on the recognized male leaders in their fields, from Aristotle to Pascal, Kant, Whitehead, and Russell. Chapters reflect philosophical pluralism, both analytic and continental themes, and cover figures reaching across the entire history of ideas in the West, from pre-historic times to the twentieth century. Anyone interested in coming to know or in preparing to teach women in the history of philosophy, science, and literature will appreciate this collection and its myriad insights into the still unrecognized voices of non-canonical sources across these disciplines.

✦ Table of Contents

Series Foreword
Contents
Editors and Contributors
1 Introduction
2 Women and Science in Antiquity: An Overview of an Underestimated Driving Force
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Prehistoric Women and Early Developments in Mesopotamia and Egypt
2.3 Ancient Greece
2.3.1 Classical Athens
2.3.2 Aspasia of Miletus
2.3.3 Agnodice
2.3.4 Diotima
2.3.5 Perictione-Axiothea-Lasthenia
2.3.6 Arete of Cyrene
2.3.7 Aesara of Lucania
2.3.8 Artemisia of Caria
2.3.9 Plato’s and Aristotle’s Ideas About Women
2.4 Hellenistic Period
2.4.1 Epicurus and Themista
2.4.2 Mary the Jewess
2.4.3 Cleopatra the Alchemist
2.4.4 Hypatia
2.5 Conclusion
Bibliography
3 Sappho’s (630–570) Poetics and the Science of Her Time
3.1 Myth and Philosophical Logos
3.2 Homer and the Emergence of Sappho’s Lyric Poetry
3.3 Logos and Sappho’s Poetics
3.4 The Fragmentation Theme and Nature in Sappho
3.5 The Importance of Analogy
3.6 The Cosmogonic Atmosphere in Sappho’s Poetry
3.7 The Divine in the Poetic Sphere
Bibliography
4 New Sappho as a Philosopher of Time?
4.1 Stehle on Sappho’s Temporal Markers
4.2 Aristotle on Perception, Re-perception, and Time
4.3 Conclusion: Sappho as a Philosopher of Time
Bibliography
5 Conway’s and Cavendish’s Non-reductionist Mechanism: Establishing Pathways for Grene’s and Keller’s Naturalist Accounts of Living Beings
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Anne Conway (1631–1679): Setting the Naturalist Stage Behind the Scenes of Vitalism
5.3 Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673): Is “Thinking Matter” Really Unthinkable in a Naturalist Framework?
5.4 Marjorie Grene (1910–2009): Non-reductionist Philosophical Naturalism and the Need for Hierarchical Explanation in the Biological Sciences
5.5 Evelyn Fox Keller (1936–): From Self-Organization to Function—The Level of the Living
5.6 Conclusion
Bibliography
6 A Forgotten Name in the Natural History: Maria Sibylla Merian
6.1 Introduction and Historical Context
6.2 The Girl and the Caterpillars: An Entomologist Is Born
6.3 Vital Changes in the Life of a Young Naturalist
6.4 Surinam: The Tropic, Its Light and Its Risks
6.5 Back to The Netherlands: Weaving Webs Towards Entrepreneurship
6.6 Final Years: Decline and Obscurity
6.7 When Death Is Not the End
Bibliography
7 Space and Time: Mathematical and Moral Thoughts in Sophie Germain and Blaise Pascal
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Germain’s and Pascal’s “Definition” of Space and Time
7.3 Space and Time Are Measurable
7.4 Space and Time Are Linked by Motion
7.5 Humans Have No Constancy or Uniformity
7.6 Conclusion
Bibliography
8 The Francophile Philosophy, Science, and Literature of Sarah A. Dorsey
8.1 Introduction
8.2 La Revue des Deux Mondes: Janet, Ravaisson, Lachelier, Fouillee
8.3 Sarah Dorsey
8.4 Writings Prior to the First Lecture
8.5 Significances of Lecture
8.6 Twentieth Century Rediscovery
8.7 Conclusion
Bibliography
9 Stebbing and Russell on Bergson: Early Analytics on Continental Thought
9.1 Stebbing’s Analyses
9.2 Russell’s Analyses
9.3 A Comparison of Stebbing and Russell on Bergson
9.3.1 Classification of Bergson’s Philosophy
9.3.2 Practical Philosophy and Bergson
9.3.3 Anti-Intellectualism
9.3.4 Style
9.3.5 Argumentation
Bibliography
10 A Case Study in Diversifying History and Philosophy of Physics: Teaching Émilie Du Châtelet’s, Luise Lange and Grete Hermann
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Example 1: Newton’s Axioms of Motion—Emilie Du Châtelet’s Formulation
10.3 Example 2: The Clock Paradox: Luise Lange’s Solution
10.4 Example 3: Hidden Variables? Grete Hermann’s Critique of John von Neumann’s Proof
10.5 Conclusion
Bibliography
11 Alfred and Evelyn: A Comparison of Alfred N. Whitehead’s and Evelyn Fox Keller’s Philosophy of Science
11.1 Introduction
11.2 Feminist Standpoint Theory
11.3 What Is a Standpoint?
11.4 Whitehead’s Philosophy of Science
11.5 Evelyn Fox Keller’s Philosophy of Science
11.6 Biographical Feminist Influences in Whitehead’s Life
11.7 What's in a Standpoint?
Bibliography
12 Reclaiming Our Health: Greek Feminist Birth Control Movements as a Form of Women’s Engagement with Science
12.1 Introduction
12.2 The Greek Feminist Movements for Birth Control: A Brief Historical Review from 1976 to 1986
12.3 The Gradual Emergence of Women’s Experiential Expertise
12.3.1 The Autonomous Feminist Groups
12.3.2 Women’s Associations and Organizations
12.4 Conclusion
Bibliography