ABSTRACT

The Routledge Handbook of Women and Early Modern European Philosophy is an outstanding reference source for the wide range of philosophical contributions made by women writing in Europe from about 1560 to 1780. It shows the range of genres and methods used by women writing in these centuries in Europe, thus encouraging an expanded understanding of our historical canon. Comprising 46 chapters by a team of contributors from all over the globe, including early career researchers, the Handbook is divided into the following sections:

I. Context
II. Themes
     A. Metaphysics and Epistemology
     B. Natural Philosophy
     C. Moral Philosophy
     D. Social-Political Philosophy
III. Figures
IV. State of the Field

The volume is essential reading for students and researchers in philosophy who are interested in expanding their understanding of the richness of our philosophical past, including in order to offer expanded, more inclusive syllabi for their students. It is also a valuable resource for those in related fields like gender and women’s studies; history; literature; sociology; history and philosophy of science; and political science.

chapter 1|9 pages

Introduction

part I|45 pages

Context

chapter 2|16 pages

Women and Institutions in Early Modern Europe

Making Space for Female Scholarship

chapter 3|12 pages

Canon, Gender, and Historiography

part II|98 pages

Themes

part II|57 pages

Section B: Natural Philosophy

chapter 11|7 pages

Space and Time

chapter 12|10 pages

Method and Explanation

chapter 13|13 pages

Physics and Optics

Agnesi, Bassi, Du Châtelet

chapter 15|12 pages

Theories of Perception

part II|67 pages

Section C: Moral Philosophy

chapter 18|14 pages

Managing Mockery

Reason, Passions and the Good Life among Early Modern Women Philosophers

chapter 19|13 pages

Virtue and Moral Obligation

part II|97 pages

Section D: Social-Political Philosophy

chapter 21|14 pages

Autonomy and Marriage

chapter 22|14 pages

Slavery and Servitude in Seventeenth-Century Feminism

Arcangela Tarabotti and Gabrielle Suchon

chapter 23|13 pages

Race and Gender in Early Modern Philosophy

How Amo and Astell Wrote behind the Veil

chapter 24|13 pages

Early Modern European Women and the Philosophy of Education

Van Schurman, Pascal, Maintenon and Astell

chapter 27|17 pages

Theories of the State

part III|242 pages

Figures

chapter 28|15 pages

Italian Women Philosophers in the Sixteenth Century

From a Critique of the Aristotelian Gender Paradigm to an Affirmation of the Excellence of Women

chapter 29|13 pages

Teresa de Ávila on Self-Knowledge

chapter 30|13 pages

(Self-)Portraits between Two Gowns

Marie de Gournay

chapter 31|13 pages

Madeleine de Scudéry

Moral Philosophy in a Gendered Key

chapter 33|15 pages

Anne Conway

chapter 34|14 pages

Gabrielle Suchon on Women's Freedom

chapter 36|13 pages

Mary Astell (1666–1731)

chapter 37|13 pages

Damaris Masham and Catharine Trotter Cockburn

Agency, Virtue, and Fitness in their Moral Philosophies

chapter 39|13 pages

The Real Consequences of Imaginary Things

Louise Dupin's Critique of Sexist Historiography 1

chapter 42|13 pages

Mary Wollstonecraft

chapter 44|13 pages

Mary Shepherd (1777–1847)

part IV|10 pages

State of the Field