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Women and the canon

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Black and white engraving of a 17th century English noblewoman, seated at a table and surrounded by flying cherubs
Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne (c1624-1674): English philosopher, ethicist, poet, playwright and scientist. A celebrated thinker and author in her own era, why isn't she better known today?(Hulton Archive / Getty Images )

The history of Western philosophy is largely a history of men, which is a little surprising when you consider that philosophy is supposedly in the business of addressing universal human concerns. It can be even more surprising to discover that women have always been philosophers, often highly regarded by their male contemporaries. So why are women philosophers often regarded today as second-tier thinkers? And what happens when we try to uncover their histories?

Guest: Jacqueline Broad, Professor of Philosophy, Monash University Melbourne

Producers: Aidan Ryall, David Rutledge

More information:

This program was produced in partnership with the Australasian Association of Philosophy

Further reading:

Rebecca Buxton and Lisa Whiting (eds): The Philosopher Queens: The Lives and Legacies of Philosophy's Unsung Women (London: Unbound, 2020)

Regan Penaluna: How to Think Like a Woman: Four Women Philosophers Who Taught Me How to Love the Life of the Mind (New York: Grove Press, 2023)

Jacqueline Broad (ed.): Women Philosophers of the Seventeenth-Century English: Selected Correspondence (Oxford University Press, 2019)

Eileen O'Neill: "Early Modern Women Philosophers and the History of Philosophy" Hypatia 20, no. 3 (2005): 185–97

Hope Sample: "Why Research and Teach Early Modern Women Philosophers?" The Southern Journal of Philosophy (January 24, 2023)

Nancy Tuana: "The Forgetting of Gender" in Teaching New Histories of Philosophy: Proceedings of a Conference, edited by J. B. Schneewind, 61–85 (Princeton University Press, 2004)

Credits

Broadcast 
Philosophy, Feminism, History
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