ABSTRACT
Like many of their male counterparts, early modern women philosophers tend to take the intellectual life to be at least part of the good life. But unlike their male counterparts, they needed to make a case for it against an often hostile social environment. Censure, mockery and ridicule were simply an expected effect of publication. These are silencing techniques, but ones that can fruitfully be understood in terms of passions and affects. I will look at how several different philosophers analyze the silencing moves they confronted (looking particularly at Sor Juana de la Cruz, Mary Astell and François Poulain de la Barre). Then I will consider how they responded: e.g., by advocating the love of study on seemingly hedonist grounds (e.g., du Châtelet), or by developing strategies of retreat and emotional self-management for countering silencing and the affects it produced (e.g., Astell).
