| CODE | PHI2053 | |||||||||
| TITLE | Women in Philosophy | |||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 02 - Years 2, 3 in Modular Undergraduate Course | |||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 5 | |||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | |||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Philosophy | |||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | Covering a selection of women philosophers from the high medieval period to the 21st century, this unit introduces their contribution to a variety of areas of philosophical inquiry, from ethics, politics and culture to science, language and metaphysics. The works and ideas of women philosophers are brought into focus in order to describe their engagement with philosophical problems in their respective intellectual and cultural contexts. Through their activity, the philosophers treated in this unit have shaped much of the discourse and critical reflection on the role of women and gender in the history of philosophy, and in philosophy as a discipline. Authors discussed in this unit will include Hildegard of Bingen, Christine de Pizan, Moderata Fonte, Lucrezia Marinella, Margaret Cavendish, Anne Conway, Émilie du Châtelet, Mary Wollstonecraft, Hannah Arendt, Edith Stein, Simone Weil, Simone de Beauvoir, G.E.M. Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, Luce Irigaray, Martha Nussbaum, Wendy Brown, Judith Butler, Donna Haraway, Camille Paglia, and others. Study-unit Aims: - bring into focus the contribution of women philosophers in the history of philosophy and in contemporary philosophical discourse; - discuss the ideas and works of a selection of women philosophers; - encourage students to research and engage with women philosophers; - fill important gaps in the dominant 'canons' of philosophy and its history, which is often presented as being entirely male-dominated; - encourage students, especially female students, to pursue further philosophical studies. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - engage critically with the works and ideas of women philosophers; - identify and review relevant secondary literature concerning specific women authors; - become more familiar with recent and ongoing scholarship on women philosophers; - consolidate and enhance their knowledge of the history of philosophy and contemporary philosophical debates. 2. Skills By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - read analytically and critically texts by at least two philosophers covered in the unit; - identify and reflect upon key concepts discussed by women philosophers; - engage in meaningful discussions on specific texts and ideas covered in the unit; - gain familiarity with recent methodologies in the study of women philosophers and critical assessments of the dominant canons of philosophy and its history; - write two short assignments focusing on at least two women philosophers. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: - Buxton, Rebecca and Lisa Whiting, eds (2020) The Philosopher Queens: The lives and legacies of philosophy's unsung women. London: Unbound. - Various entries in the following online reference works: - History of Women Philosophers and Scientists Project, dir. R. Hagengruber. URL= - Encylopedia of Concise Concepts by Women Philosophers, eds M.E. Waithe and R. Hagengruber. URL= - The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Edward N. Zalta. URL= Supplementary Texts: - Arendt, Hannah (1951) The Origins of Totalitarianism. George Allen & Unwin. - Arendt, Hannah (1998) The Human Condition. 2nd edition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. - Atherton, Margaret (1994) Women Philosophers of the Early Modern Period. Cambridge, MA: Hackett. - Baier, Anette (2005) The need for more than Justice, in A.E. Cudd and R.O. Andreasen (eds) Feminist Theory: A Philosophical Anthology. London: Blackwell, 243-250. - Brown, Wendy (2017) Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. - Brown, Wendy (2019) In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Antidemocratic Politics in the West. New York: Columbia University Press. - Butler, Judith (1988) Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory, in Theatre Journal 40(4): 519-531. - Butler, Judith (2003) Violence, Mourning, Politics, in Studies in Gender and Sexuality 4(1): 9-37. - Cavendish, Margaret (1994) The Blazing World, trans. K. Lilley. London: Penguin. - Courtine-Denamy, Sylvie (2011) Three Women in Dark Times: Edith Stein, Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil, trans. G. M. Goshgarian. London: Cornell University Press. - de Beauvoir, Simone (2011) The Second Sex. London: Random House. - de Beauvoir, Simone (2018) The Ethics of Ambiguity. New York: Open Road Media. - de Beauvoir, Simone (2021) What is Existentialism? London: Penguin. - de Pizan, Christine (1999) The Book of the City of Ladies, trans. R. Brown-Grant. Revised edition. London: Penguin. - Ebbersmeyer, Sabrina and Gianni Paganini, eds (2020) Women, Philosophy and Science. Cham: Springer. - Fonte, Moderata (2018), The Merits of Women, ed. V. Cox with a Foreword by D. Maraini. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press. - Hacker-Wright, John (2013) Philippa Foot’s Moral Thought. London: Bloomsbury Academic. - Hagengruber, Ruth (2016) Émilie du Châtelet, 1706-1749: Transformer of Metaphysics and Scientist, in Mathematical Intelligencer, 38(4): 1-6. - Haraway, Donna (1985) Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s, in Socialist Review, 80: 65-108. - Haraway, Donna (2007), When Species Meet, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. - Hildegard of Bingen (2001) Selected Writings, trans. M. Atherton. London: Penguin. - Hutton, Sarah (2004) Anne Conway: A Woman Philosopher. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. - Hutton, Sarah (2019) Women, philosophy and the history of philosophy, in British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 27(4): 684-670. - Irigaray, Luce (1985a) Speculum of the Other Woman, trans. Gillian C. Gill. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. (First published 1974) - Irigaray, Luce (1985b) This Sex Which Is Not One, trans. Catherine Porter. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. (First published 1977) - Irigaray, Luce (1993a) An Ethics of Sexual Difference, trans. Carolyn Burke and Gillian C. Gill. London: Athlone Press. (First published 1984) - Irigaray, Luce (1993b) Sexes and Genealogies, trans. Gillian C. Gill. New York: Columbia University Press. (First published 1987) - Kenny, Anthony (2016) Elizabeth Anscombe at Oxford, in Special Issue: Elizabeth Anscombe. American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, 90(2): 181-189. - Kienzle, Beverly, Debra L. Stoudt and George Ferzoco, eds (2014) A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen. Leiden: Brill. - Lloyd, Moya (2007) Judith Butler: From Norms to Politics. Cambridge: Polity Press. - MacIntyre (2006) Edith Stein: A Philosophical Prologue. London: Continuum. - Midgley, Mary (2005) The Essential Mary Midgley, ed. D. Midgley. London: Routledge. - Newman, Barbara, ed. (1998) Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and her World. Berkeley: University of California Press. - Nussbaum, Martha (2005), Women and Cultural Universals, in A.E. Cudd and R.O. Andreasen (eds) Feminist Theory: A Philosophical Anthology. London: Blackwell, 302-324. - Paglia, Camille (1991) Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickenson. New York: Vintage Books. - Paglia, Camille (2017) Free Women, Free Men: Sex, Gender and Feminism. New York: Pantheon. - Poor, Sara S. (2004) Mechthild of Magdeburg and her Book: Gender and the Making of Textual Authority. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. - Stein, Edith (1989) On the Problem of Empathy, trans. Waltraut Stein. Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications. - Teichmann, Roger (2008) The Philosophy of Elizabeth Anscombe. Oxford: Oxford University Press. - Tronto, Joan (2005) An Ethic of Care, in A.E. Cudd and R.O. Andreasen (eds) Feminist Theory: A Philosophical Anthology. London: Blackwell, 251-263. - Voorhoeve, Alex (2003) The Grammar of Goodness: An Interview with Philippa Foot, in The Harvard Review of Philosophy, 11, 32–44. - Warnock, Mary, ed. (1996) Women Philosophers. London: Orion, 1996. - Weil, Simone (2002) The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind, trans. A. Wills. London: Routledge Classics. - Whitford, Margaret (1991) Luce Irigaray: Philosophy in the Feminine. London. Routledge. - Wollstonecraft, Mary (2015) A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. London: Vintage. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | |||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Kurt Borg Mary Ann Cassar Jean-Paul De Lucca Robert Farrugia Natasha Galea Simone Galea Mark Sultana Niki Young Francois Zammit |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2025/6. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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