Women's philosophy occupies a special place in global philosophy. There are practically no female names in the lists of famous philosophers, but their contribution to the development of science is large and significant enough to allocate a separate niche for it.

Features of women's philosophy

Women's philosophy cannot be similar to the philosophy of men. The physical and mental difference between the sexes forms in women a special approach to understanding themselves, their place in the world and the main life values.

The main values ​​of a woman

The basic need for every woman is to feel loved and desired. Her gender role instructs her to strive to create a family. It is within the family that the need for acceptance is realized. Caring for the family and husband makes you feel needed.

Most women, among their core values, distinguish:

• love;
• motherhood;
• beauty;
• health;
• financial stability;
• self-realization.

Men in a similar survey put financial well-being in the first place. This difference is due to differences in intersexual psychology. However, in the modern world, the strict framework of social roles is rapidly being erased. Changes in social policy allow women to simultaneously play their traditional role and try on masculine ones, becoming the main breadwinner in the family. Such changes, affecting the very basis of relationships, become the main theme of modern women's philosophy.

Features of the female view of the world

Throughout her life, a woman performs various social roles that affect her worldview and shape her personality. These include:

• daughter;
• sister;
• wife;
• mother;
• pupil;
• worker;
• girlfriend.

Moving from one stage of development to another, a woman gains life experience that affects her attitude to the world, her life, life purpose and other key issues.

Since for a long time the role of a woman in society was passive-observant, this could not but be reflected in her views. In contrast to men who cultivate the idea of ​​actively exploring the world and transforming it to suit their needs, women more often take the position of a mute contemplator. In this case, non-interference in the processes of change in society allows you to look deep and understand the essence of the phenomenon. On the basis of such observations, innovative ideas are often born, which in turn make it possible to influence society by non-violent methods.

Women and beauty

Throughout the development of human civilization, stereotypes about beauty as the main female value and vocation were formed and consolidated. The standards of beauty change under the influence of the political and sociological situation in the world, but the need for an ideal remains unchanged.

Beauty as a weapon

Philosophy about women is characterized by the fact that men and women have different options for personality development and different purposes. A feature of the social role of a man is to be a provider and protector. The woman is given the role of the guardian of the hearth. A man wins and dominates in a relationship, and a woman gives in and is under his protection.

If a man's weapon is his physical strength, financial viability and high status in society, then a woman's weapon is her appearance. With the help of beauty, she can achieve a higher position, receive various privileges.

Beauty as a value

Relationships are based on the idea of ​​the unity of two opposites. A strong active man and a weak passive woman together create a harmonious union. To be able to create a union (in the understanding of modern society - a nuclear family), a woman must have the necessary qualities. One of them is physical beauty.

Model appearance is the main value for a woman of any age, nationality and social status. Loss of beauty due to an accident, illness or due to age-related changes in the body can cause apathy, depression and even suicide. Therefore, one of the key issues of women's philosophy is the concept of beauty and its role in a woman's life.

The beauty myth

The modern perception of beauty is undergoing major changes. Third-wave feminist icon Naomi Wolf, in her acclaimed work The Beauty Myth, sees beauty as a social construct created within patriarchy. Patriarchy or the power of men is a feature of the world order, in which belonging to the male sex gives a person special rights from birth. Belonging to the female gender obliges to the role of a subordinate. One of the duties of a subordinate woman is to be beautiful.

Beauty standards are formed in such a way that they cannot be achieved. Natural features of appearance are declared undesirable and harmful. At different times, these included or include: body hair, the shape of the lips, the structure of the hair, weight, height and other characteristics of the body.

In an effort to achieve the ideal, a woman must spend huge amounts of money, restrict herself in food, cause serious harm to health. Since many of the innate features of physiology cannot be changed, the ideal of beauty remains unattainable. This makes a woman suffer and feel inferior. The Beauty Myth states that women can only become happy when they give up the pursuit of an imposed ideal and realize that their value is not determined only by external data.

famous women philosophers

Despite the ban on education, there is no shortage of female philosophers. Even in antiquity, there were famous thinkers who were respected by their contemporaries. The list of founders of women's philosophy includes:

1. Hanna Arendt. A Jewish woman who was forced to flee France and took refuge in America. Wrote several works about the political structure. In her books, she considered the features of tyranny as a form of power and the desire of people for totalitarianism.
2. Philip Foot. Engaged in ethical research. She taught at Oxford and worked with many contemporary philosophers. Her essay "Virtue and Vice" is considered a classic of modern philosophy.
3. Elizabeth Anscombe. She has researched many fields, including ethics, logic, linguistics, and metaethics. It was made famous by the series of articles "Internationality", which examines the moral foundations that determine the intentions and actions of a person. Introduced the term "consequentialism" into philosophical discourse.
4. Mary Wollstonecraft. English writer and philosopher. She advocated women's free access to education, for which she can be considered one of the founders of feminist philosophy. In addition to political and social literature, she wrote fiction books, including children's books. Her daughter also became a writer, she is the author of the novel "Frankenstein".
5. Hypatia of Alexandria. Daughter of Theon's philosophy, follower of the views of Plato and Aristotle. She was an influential political figure of her time and a famous philosopher. She taught philosophy, mathematics and astronomy, and after her father's death she directed his school. She made a great contribution to the development of scholasticism.
6. Anna Dufourmentel. French philosopher, explored the philosophy of risk. She has written 30 books, and is best known for her work In Defense of Risk. In it, the writer considers risk as a necessary motivation for development.
7. Harriet Taylor Mill. Founder of British feminism. After the death of her first husband, she married the philosopher and like-minded John Mill, and together with him studied the social role of women in society. On the basis of her essay, Mill wrote his work On the Subjection of Women, which became one of the first officially published books on feminism.
8. Katherine Guinness. Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, researches Africa and the features of "black" feminism. Founded the College of Black Women Philosophers. Criticized Bouvoir's feminist ideas for not being inclusive enough. According to Guinness, in addition to patriarchy, the main problem of black women is still racism and this must be taken into account.
9. Simone de Bouvoir. One of the founders of "white" feminism. He is the author of several dozen books, the most famous of which is The Second Sex. In it, the writer examines the role of women in the modern world, the features of relationships with men, motherhood and other basic aspects of life. Together with Jean-Paul Sartre, she developed and popularized French existentialism. Her famous saying “Women are not born, women are made” has become one of the most used literary quotes.
10. Carol Gilligan. Considered the standards of morality and ethics, criticizing the universality of concepts. She founded a school of care ethics and wrote several books on the psychology of women.

With the development of modern technology, the opportunity for women to receive education and participate in public and scientific discourse has increased significantly. This gives reason to believe that in the future there will be more famous women philosophers, and their contribution to the development of philosophy will become more significant.

Ecology of life. People: Existentialism, totalitarianism, the philosophy of risk and the ethics of morality: in this selection of the 10 most significant women philosophers of different times, whose ideas influenced the face of the modern world.

Existentialism, totalitarianism, the philosophy of risk and the ethics of morality: in this selection of the 10 most significant women philosophers of different times, whose ideas have influenced the face of the modern world.

A thought worthy of attention can be born to anyone, regardless of gender, but this does not prevent us from looking at this issue from a certain angle. Recently, the BigThink portal published a material that contains the most significant female philosophers of different eras - from antiquity to the present. We invite you to familiarize yourself with this list.

10 most significant women philosophers of different times

Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986)

Simone de Beauvoir

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Representative of French existentialism and founder of second wave feminism. Few philosophers can match Beauvoir, although she never thought of herself as unique in this field.

She has written dozens of books, including The Second Sex and The Ethics of Ambiguity. Beauvoir's style of presentation is understandable, accessible, she focuses on the pragmatic issues of existentialism, in contrast to her partner in open marriage, Jean-Paul Sartre, who paid more attention to theory.

Simone de Beauvoir was active in French politics, was a social critic, participated in protest demonstrations and was a member of the French resistance.

“The curse that lies on marriage is that people too often unite in their weakness rather than their strength. Each needs the other instead of enjoying the gift of love."

Hypatia of Alexandria (b. 350 - 370, died 415)

Hypatia of Alexandria

Actress as Hypatia of Alexandria, 19th century / Photo: Julia Margaret Cameron

The Greek woman scientist, according to many contemporaries, is the greatest philosopher of her era. Her fame was so great that future students traveled great distances to hear her lectures. And although to this day there is no certainty about the length of her writings, which is a common problem for ancient authors, it is at least clear that she created several works with her father.

In Alexandria, she taught the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, was a follower of Plotinian neo-Platonism; Hypatia also taught mathematics, was engaged in the calculation of astronomical tables. She was an active participant in the urban politics of Alexandria, had influence on the fathers of the city.

There are several opinions regarding her death: she could have been killed by a Christian mob during major spontaneous riots in the city; but there is also a version that she could be a victim of the opposition of the city authorities, who accused her of sorcery and bewitching the prefect.

"In Alexandria there was a woman named Hypatia, daughter of the philosopher Theon, who reached such heights in literature and science that she far exceeds all the philosophers of her time."

Socrates Scholasticus, "Ecclesiastical History"

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975)

Hannah Arendt

Hannah Arendt, 1943 / Photo: © Fred Stein

Another great female philosopher who did not consider herself one. German of Jewish origin, fled to New York from the French regime of Vichy France. She has written extensively on totalitarianism, and in her best work, The Origin of Totalitarianism, she analyzed and explained how such regimes come to power.

Similarly, her book Eichmann in Jerusalem examines how, under certain conditions, even the most ordinary of people can exhibit totalitarian thinking. Hannah Arendt also wrote on other political topics, tried to comprehend the controversial issues of the American and French revolutions, and offered criticism of the idea of ​​human rights.

"In a tyranny, it is much easier to act than to think."

Philippa Foote (1920-2010)

Philippa Foot

Philippa Foote in Oxford (1990) / Photo: © Steve Pike / Getty Images

This Englishwoman researched mainly questions of ethics. The “trolley problem” described by her received the greatest fame and development. Philippa Foote is often credited with reviving Aristotelian thought.

She worked at Oxford and the University of California and during her life worked with many philosophers of her time, her work seriously influenced the worldview of many living scientists.

The Virtues and Vices collection of essays takes on special significance today in light of the recent resurgence of interest in virtue ethics.

"You ask a philosopher a question and after he or she talks for a bit, you no longer understand your question."

Elizabeth Anscombe (1919-2001)

G.E.M Anscombe

English philosopher working at Oxford. She explored many topics, including logic, ethics, meta-ethics, mind, language, and was interested in the phenomena of war crimes.

Her largest and most significant work is "Intentionality". This is a series of articles showing that what we set out to do has a big impact on our morals.

Her pioneering work "Modern Moral Philosophy" had a significant impact on modern research on ethical issues; it is in it that she first uses the term "consequentialism".

Elizabeth Anscombe has debated with many well-known thinkers, including Philippa Foote, and was the initiator of protests against the policies of the 33rd US President Harry Truman and abortions in local clinics.

"Those who try to treat sex as a simple and casual pleasure pay a heavy price: they become superficial."

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)

Mary Wollstonecraft

Portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft by John Opie (1797)

Also an Englishwoman, philosopher and popular writer. Author of The Defense of the Rights of Man, published in response to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. She also wrote "In Defense of Women's Rights" as a response to those who opposed women's education.

In a way, she became the first philosopher of feminism. Apart from this, she has also written several novels, travel guides and a children's book. Mary Wollstonecraft died of childbirth complications at the age of 38. Her daughter became a famous writer - this is Mary Shelley, the author of "Frankenstein".

"Virtue can only flourish among equals."

Anna Dufourmentel (1964-2017)

Anne Dufourmantelle

Anna Dufourmentel, 2011 / JLPPA / Bestimage

The Frenchwoman, philosopher and psychoanalyst, gained fame as a researcher of the philosophy of risk. In particular, she owns the idea that in order to really experience life, we must be prepared to take risks, often significant ones; that risk is inevitable, since risk-free strategies do not exist in principle.In 2011, her book In Defense of Risk was published.

She was also interested in the concept of security, which is opposed to risk and which, in her opinion, forms a void in our existence. Anna Dufourmentel was the author of 30 books and a large number of interesting lectures. Her death is symbolic: she died in 2017 just as she lived, taking risks and saving.

Anna Durufmantel died on July 21, 2017 on Pampelonne beach near Saint-Tropez while trying to save two children who were swept out to sea by the current.

“When we are face to face with danger, then only can we feel a really powerful incentive to transcend ourselves.”

“Being alive is a risk. Life is a metamorphosis, and it begins with this risk."

Harriet Taylor-Mill (1807-1858)

Harriet Taylor Mill

© National Portrait Gallery

English feminist and philosopher. After the death of her first husband, John Taylor, she became the wife of the economist and philosopher Stuart Mill, who had a strong influence on her work.

Only a few works were published during her lifetime, and her essay "The Liberation of Women" was the forerunner of Mill's later work, "On the Subjection of Women", in which he touches on the same issues as his wife. John Stuart Mill's masterpiece "On Liberty" is dedicated to Harriet and, moreover, partly written by her.

John Stuart Mill

Katherine Guinness (born 1978)

Kathryn Gines

© Wikimedia Commons

American philosopher working at the University of Pennsylvania. Guinness is deeply interested in the themes of Africa, black feminism and its phenomenology. Founder of the College of Black Women Philosophers, whose mission is to increase the significance of this activity among these women, as well as to create a supportive space for the development of philosophical thought in this environment.

She argued with Hannah Arendt and Simone de Beauvoir. In a book on the philosophy of Hannah Arendt, she noted the latter's failure to recognize that the "Negro question" was a "white problem" and that the racism of the time was more political than social.

"By using the word 'woman' and not specifying whether it is a black, Jewish, colonized, or proletarian woman, Beauvoir is hiding precisely the whiteness of a woman, which she most often describes as something else."

Carol Gilligan (born 1936)

Carol Gilligan

American philosopher, founder of the ethics of care school. Gilligan's famous work In a Different Voice. Psychological Theory and the Development of Women" was called "the little book that started the revolution".

It questions the value of universal moral standards such as justice or duty, viewing them as impersonal and far removed from our current concerns. Instead, she suggests that we view relationships and our interdependence in terms of moral action.

“I have found that if I say what I really think and feel, people are more likely to say what they really think and feel. The conversation will become a real conversation."

“The histories of philosophy contain the occasional muttering of the names of women: Xanthippe, the bad wife of Socrates (her portrait left us Xenophon); Perictione, Plato's mother; Queen Christina of Sweden, who was portrayed as an admirer of Descartes, although in her own eyes he was not a serious thinker. Then female names suddenly reappear in the twentieth century. […]

So, until recently, the standard male wisdom was invariably preserved, and now we know that there were women teachers and authors of philosophical concepts from the pre-Socratics to our twenty-first century. Women have led great schools of philosophy, have been an integral part of informal philosophical circles with their later more famous male counterparts, have written important philosophical works, and have led professional philosophical societies over the past century. They participated with men in the discussion of important philosophical problems of their time.

What was the role that women played in the history of philosophy? Why has this role remained largely unknown? The first of these questions is not so easy to answer. We do know, however, that in antiquity at least twenty-one women studied, wrote, and/or taught philosophy. At least three of them Hypatia of Alexandria(370-415 AD), Asclepigenia of Athens (c. 375 BC), and Arete of Cyrene (c. 350 BC) were thought to have led headed or co-directed with men the schools of philosophy. These twenty-one ancient female philosophers were known to some of the invariably male philosophers, including Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristippus, and Proclus. […]

We should also remember the getters, most of whom owe their fame to their famous contemporaries, who patronized them. Gerpilis was the mistress of Aristotle, who gave him a son. Megalostrata adopted the erotic philosophy of Alcman, the predecessor of Homer. Leontina, an Athenian hetaera, was a follower and mistress of Epicurus, famous for her eloquence; her heated polemic with the philosopher Theophrastus was famous. Epicurus remained faithful to her until her death and claimed that it was she who helped his philosophical theories. Cleonissa wrote several works on philosophy that, however, have not come down to us; she died by accident from the dagger of Pausanias, into whose chambers she entered at night without warning. Leena - a hetero-philosopher, the mistress of Harmodius, conspired with him against the tyrant Hippias, for which she suffered. Pigareta - being an excellent mathematician and thinker, was the mistress of the philosopher Stilyyun from Megara. Theodota passionately loved Socrates and in order to achieve a courtesan Aristophanes accused him of corrupting the youth, but this did not in the least raise the chances of the informer. Laisa of Corinth was the lover of Diogenes and was considered an interesting philosopher herself. […]

In the Middle Ages, with the advent of nunneries and education for women and the discovery of lost ancient philosophical works, many women in nunneries learned to read and write Latin and took part in the great restoration and conservation projects of the texts of the ancient thinkers. The closed society of the convent contributed to reflection as well as to the preparation of didactic materials for the education of religious and noble women. This was the time of the famous women philosophers who were respected in their day and later forgotten or reclassified as exclusively theological authors. The medieval period was a time of little fame for women from the monastery, but this did not become a hindrance. […]

With the "official" start of the modern ("classical") period in philosophy (i.e. since Descartes), there is an increase in the number of women - not only from convents (which were decreasing both in number and in the number of women they trained), but from the noble, from the low aristocracy and the petty bourgeoisie - who are increasingly taking up philosophical work. […]

Often, the themes of the works of women philosophers concerned the modern meanings of scientific or rational philosophy and science, but intersected directly with the problems of women themselves. The French and American Revolutions spurred many philosophers of women to write in defense of the rights of women and non-whites. […]

In the twentieth century, women philosophers are much more difficult to become victims, and the losses themselves are somewhat less significant. This is the period in which women were first admitted to universities. In the beginning it was only a gap (there are still not many women philosophers), but over the last century the gap in the door has been expanding steadily. […]

Women philosophers at the turn of this century had few educational opportunities in philosophy, for they were constantly confronted with overt sexual discrimination. Thus, Harvard University refused to award Mary Wheaton Calkins (Calkins, 1863 - 1930) her Ph.D. in philosophy, even when William James said her oral exam was better than any other he had ever heard. Harvard simply didn't award PhDs to women, even though Calkins was more than worthy of one, both in philosophy and psychology. another story, which in this case concerns the role of women in learned societies. Women striving for success in the philosophical field joined professional societies, which in the West are of great help in organizing and conducting philosophical research. These societies, including the Aristotelian Society and Mind Association in the UK and the American Philosophical Association in the United States, provide forums for philosophers to present the earliest results of their research. These are circumstances within which very narrow academic interests may be pursued in the company of other experts. Women from the beginning of the 20th century until now have been active participants in these societies and have used them to test new ideas and new interpretations of old ideas. […]

And while Constance Jones lost a philosopher's most prized possession, the original idea that a man appropriated, other female philosophers became known primarily for their association with men. Being in the company of the opposite sex, they gained a reputation in philosophy, but in the end this often became an excuse for omissions by historians due to the greater fame of male philosophers. Lou Andreas-Salome, for example, was long known only as "Nietzsche's wayward pupil", and she was not alone in this. Simone de Beauvoir(Simone de Beauvoir, 1908 - 1986) did not immediately overstep the boundaries of her ambiguous connection and identification with Jean-Paul Sartre. Research Hannah Arendt(1906 - 1975) gained fame through information by M. Heidegger, E. Husserl and K. Jaspers, which gave her works on human freedom in political and social life great weight.

Many can name the names of women involved in certain issues in the field of philosophy in the 20th century. Among them are R. Luxembourg, K. Zetkin, E. Blavatsky, A. Besant, Anna Freud and Melanie Kline, Mahler Margaret, Margaret Mead, Clara Thompson, Karen Horney, A.-M. Tymenetska, Margaret Wilson, and others. In each region, whether it be Asia, Africa, Latin America, Russia, India and China, you can be cited more than one hundred more women who have left their mark on philosophy.

At least two hundred women philosophers have lived, died, and left written works of philosophy during the past twenty-five centuries, and if we do not emphasize their achievements, it will probably be a prolonged underestimation of their work. For it is known that insufficient access to literacy undoubtedly reduced the possibilities of ancient and medieval women, of the Renaissance and Modern times, both in teaching and in the creation of philosophy.

Prejudice against women has also undoubtedly intimidated many women, who might otherwise have risky, and possibly alternative, opinions on important philosophical topics. Indeed, many of the ancient and medieval works contain formulas of humility or are addressed to other women as rules of life and activity.

Kolesnikov A.S., The modern philosophical process at the beginning of the XXI century, in Sat: Miscellanea Humanitaria Philosophiae. Essays on philosophy and culture. To the 60th anniversary of Yu.N. Solonin, St. Petersburg, "St. Petersburg Philosophical Society", Issue 5, 2001, p. 116-122.

There is an old anecdote: “Two people are swimming down the river, a man and a woman. The man smokes and the woman rows. Suddenly the man says: “It’s good for you, woman: row yourself and row, but I have to think about life.” This anecdote describes well the centuries-old attitude of philosophers towards their occupation and women. But even in those days, when breaking into science and making a woman talk about her work required great fortitude and a lot of effort, female names flared up in the firmament of philosophy. Yes, women have always wanted not only to row, but also to think about life.

Hypatia of Alexandria: a victim of political squabbles

Thanks to constant references in the writings of ancient philosophers, we know that there were many female philosophers in ancient Greece, especially in the Pythagorean school. Thanks to her scientific work and the tragic fate of the most famous of them was Hypatia.

Hypatia's father was one of the most prominent scientists of his time, Theon of Alexandria. Apparently, he did not suffer from prejudice against women and immediately prepared his daughter for a special fate. At least he gave her a name that literally means "supreme". Theon personally taught his daughter.

At the age of about forty or fifty years (the normal beginning of such a career), Hypatia began to lecture at her father's school at Museion - the same Greek cultural and educational center that owned the Library of Alexandria. At the school, Hypatia headed the department of philosophy, but her area of ​​interest was also astronomy and mathematics.

Contemporaries knew Hypatia as the author of the most complex astronomical tables and a follower of the Neoplatonist school. After the death of her father, the scientist took over the leadership of his school, as his main student. The glory of both Hypatia and her school attracted many students, so that the school flourished even without municipal funding. Among the graduates were many major government officials. The early Christian philosopher-theologian Bishop Synesius also graduated from it.

“She acquired such learning that she surpassed her contemporary philosophers; was the successor of the Platonic school, descended from Plato, and taught all the philosophical sciences to those who wished. Therefore, those wishing to study philosophy flocked to it from all sides. By her education, having self-confidence worthy of respect, she appeared with modesty even in the face of the rulers; and in that she did not put any shame that she appeared among men, because for her extraordinary modesty everyone respected her and marveled at her, ”the historian Socrates Scholasticus later wrote.

Hypatia's death was terrible. She had great influence on the mayor, and his political opponent, Bishop Cyril, told his flock that Hypatia was bewitching the mayor with pagan charms and influencing his decisions. The most fanatical supporters of Cyril attacked Hypatia and literally tore her to pieces, not listening to excuses. All the works of Hypatia burned down along with the Library of Alexandria. We only have memories of the scientist herself.

Lou Salome: Triangle with Nietzsche

A native of St. Petersburg, the writer, philosopher, psychoanalyst is famous, among other things, for the influence she had on Nietzsche, Freud and Rilke. Lou's (then Louise's) father was a Russian German, General Gustav von Salome. “Lou” came up with the name of the girl by the pastor, with whom she fell in love at the age of seventeen.
In the eighties, European universities were literally occupied by Russian students - after all, in their homeland, these girls could not get a higher education by law. Lou went to study accompanied by her mother in Switzerland.

In Europe, Lu is imbued with the spirit of freedom walking among her compatriots. She visits salons, travels to different countries in the company of two young people - Paul Reu and Friedrich Nietzsche. Although Lou preached communal life in celibacy, many still suspect that her connection with Paul and Friedrich was not only spiritual. Nietzsche presented Salome to everyone as one of the smartest people of their time and later brought out her image in his famous Zarathustra.

At twenty-five, Lou marries Orientalist professor Friedrich Carl Andreas. Andreas is much older and Lou only agrees to his proposal after he tries to stab himself in the chest with a knife. However, she sets a condition for her husband: no intimate relationships. Salome and Andreas lived together for forty-three years, and, judging by all the signs, they really did not touch each other. Lou preferred to let younger men into her bed. Andreas also had affairs on the side; his daughter, by one of Salome's mistresses, later adopted.

As a psychoanalyst, Salome collaborated with Anna Freud, wrote 139 articles and a book on the philosophy and psychology of erotic attraction. Lou died in 1937, and immediately after Salome's death, the Nazis solemnly burned her library.

Tullia d'Aragona: the ugliest courtesan in Italy

Even during her lifetime, Salome, who became famous, was compared with a woman philosopher, also known as the most unusual courtesan in Italy - Tullia d'Aragona. In general, Tullia's choice of the path of a courtesan and her popularity in this field seem inexplicable. The girl was the daughter of a cardinal and his mistress Giulia Farnese, she did not know any refusal, and by the standards of her time she was also ugly: tall, thin, with a hooked nose.

Fans, however, enthusiastically praised Tullius' gentle voice, her ability to maintain the most intelligent conversation and playing the lute. She received her extraordinary education with the support of her father, who early noticed the girl's great mind.

Tullia constantly changed her place of residence. Among her lovers were many famous poets, which in itself ensured her place in history. But Tullia became famous for her philosophical studies of the nature of female sexuality and emotionality.

As a courtesan, Tullia managed to stand out even in Venice, a city where about a hundred thousand courtesans lived. In addition, she was noted in a political scandal over some state secrets in Florence, and the famous writer of his time, Girolamo Muzio, dedicated his Treatise on Marriage to her. Muzio also helped publish Tullia's writings, being a fan of her sharp thought and literary talent.

Tullia, one of the few courtesans, was eventually given the right not to comply with the dress regulations for courtesans and was officially referred to as a “poetess” by occupation. Given the prejudice against women, and especially those who lead an unrighteous lifestyle, this recognition of achievements is worth a lot.

Christina of Pisa: a girl who grew up in the library of the king

Philosophers of the past very often explained why the world and society are arranged exactly the way they are, based on the fact that in general everything is fair and some people (not them) are naturally born to suffer and row in a boat. It is clear that when a woman came to philosophy, she, on the contrary, proceeded from the fact that the social structure is unfair. She argued her views in terms relevant to her time and cultural environment. It is not surprising that many thinkers of the past are considered to be primal feminists. Among them is one of the very first thinkers who protested against the position of women in society, Christina of Pisa.

Christina's father, an Italian, was a physician and astrologer at the court of the French king Charles the Wise. The girl grew up in the palace and had free access to the royal library - unlike almost all other girls in France at that time. At the same time, the library in the Louvre was the largest in Europe, so Christina was read by Italian and ancient Roman authors from childhood.

At the age of fifteen, however, they treated Christina in exactly the same way as with illiterate girls - they married a man much older. She bore him three children. After ten years of marriage, Christina was widowed: her husband was killed by the plague. Since by that time neither the good King Charles nor Christina's father had survived, the young widow found herself in a difficult situation.

She managed to find patrons, Jean of Berry and Duke Louis of Orleans. The children were no longer babies, no new children were expected, the patrons gave out at least a tiny but solid boarding school, and Christina took up the business that she had dreamed of for a very long time: literature.

Over the next nine years, Christina wrote more than three hundred love ballads and poems. They made her quite famous: the poetess was invited to the English court. But Christina rejected the offer, and soon left the brilliant Paris to move to a monastery. There, nothing prevented her from reading a lot and reading a lot. In the end, she went down in history not as a poetess, but as the creator of the Book of the City of Women, a philosophical work that justifies the initial equality of women and men in abilities and talents.

This book was the beginning of the so-called "women controversy", a long public, mostly written discussion, which unfolded in France more than a hundred years after the publication of the book. Among the participants in the dispute was Montaigne's student, the thinker Marie de Gournay, whose scandalous fame can only be compared with the glory of the female philosophers Simone de Beauvoir and Andrea Dworkin in the twentieth century. Despite ideas contrary to tradition, de Gournay was paid a pension by Cardinal Richelieu himself - they agreed on the path of the French language.

Anna de Stael: Napoleon's Headache

Madame de Stael became famous for her confrontation with Napoleon - after a public discussion, he even expelled her from France. Anna is also one of the most famous historians of the Revolution and opponents of the restoration of the monarchical system; she owns works from which many contemporaries drew ideas about the inevitable regression of literature under authoritarian regimes, and contemporaries - about the need to recognize equal rights for women and men. Now these ideas do not seem like something sharp, but they very much annoyed Napoleon and were among the reasons for his decision to expel Madame de Stael.

As you know, at the mere mention of Anna, Napoleon's face changed. He discussed it only with the transition to personalities and, in order to sign the decree on exile, even digressed from acutely topical foreign policy issues.

Anna was the daughter of the Minister of Finance of the last king of the Bourbon dynasty. Her mother kept a literary salon famous throughout Paris; over time, de Stael started the same. Despite the lack of active political activity, in political circles she enjoyed influence as an ideologue. Her first philosophical work was a commentary on Montexieu's "Spirit of the Law" - and she wrote them at the age of fifteen, striking adult acquaintances with her ability to formulate a thought.

At the age of twenty, Anna was married to the Swedish ambassador, Baron Erich Magnus Stahl von Holstein. The marriage turned out to be unhappy, which, perhaps, only added to the philosophical nature of Anna. Despite the fact that her entire family, like Anna herself, suffered from the Great French Revolution, de Stael took the ideas of freedom and equality very close to her heart and, after exile, shocked half of Europe with her reasoning on this topic - she traveled to many countries, including Russia .

One of de Stael's most famous novels, Corinne, is about the plight of a brilliant woman in a society where a woman has no right to be brilliant. The same theme is raised in another, more scandalous for contemporaries novel "Dolphin". De Stael is also known for her ethnographic work, deep by the standards of her time, dedicated to Germany and the Germans, an essay in defense of Marie Antoinette, and ethnographic notes about Russia, included in her autobiographical book Years of Exile.

Despite the fact that de Stael was described with the words “evil as hell, smart as an angel,” her life had enough novels, including with men much younger. Scandalous fame not only did not prevent her from inviting her to receptions in monarchical states, but rather increased the number of invitations. De Stael died of a stroke - she went to the evening at the minister's and fell right on the steps of his house. She lay ill for several months and drew her last breath on the anniversary of her beloved Revolution.

, also destroyed stereotypes with their talent, the memory of which has remained for centuries.

Great and not so great philosophers were able to maintain neutrality and strictness of judgment, thinking about the structure of the world, about God, about society and its needs. But they had a topic, a painfully complex topic, on which everything went awry. The theme is, of course, gender.

And everything would be fine if the reasoning about the natural female essence, devoid of intelligible argumentation, were simply spoken aloud and immediately forgotten. But no - some managed to write them down. What they recorded there - in our selection.

Of course, we do not judge the authors too harshly - they lived in a time when men tried not to even suspect about the social mechanisms of constructing gender differences. At the same time, it is highly desirable that people who are in their right mind do not repeat this nonsense now.

Friedrich Hegel. Philosophy of law

“Women may be educated, but for the higher sciences, like philosophy, and for some works of art that require the universal, they are not created. Women may have wit, taste, grace, but they are not perfect.

The difference between a man and a woman is the same as the difference between an animal and a plant: the animal is more in line with the character of the man, the plant is more with the character of the woman, for she is more of a calm unfoldment, beginning with a more indefinite unity of feeling.

The state is endangered when women are at the head of the government, because they do not act according to the requirements of the universal, but are guided by random inclinations and opinions.

Women receive their education in some unknown ways and, as it were, through an atmosphere of performance, more through life than through the acquisition of knowledge, while a man reaches his position only through the conquest of thought and many technical efforts.

Benedict Spinoza. political treatise

“Someone, perhaps, will ask whether women are under the power of men by nature or by virtue of a positive law? After all, if this is so only by virtue of the law, then for us there is, therefore, no reason to remove women from government. But if we turn to experience for guidance, we will see that this state of affairs is due to the weakness of women themselves.

For it is an unseen thing that men and women rule together, but everywhere on earth, wherever there are men and women, men rule, and women are in subjection, and thus both sexes live in harmony.

But, on the contrary, the Amazons, who, according to legend, once ruled, did not tolerate men in their country, but raised only girls; the boys they gave birth to were killed.

After all, if women were by nature equal to men both in the strength of the soul and in the strength of the mind, which mainly consists of human power, and therefore the right, then, of course, among such different nations there would be those where both sexes ruled on an equal basis, and others where men would be ruled by women and would receive such an upbringing that they would lag behind them in mental qualities.

But since this is nowhere to be found, it can be fully asserted that women by nature do not have the same right as men: on the contrary, they are necessarily inferior to men and therefore it is impossible that both sexes rule on an equal basis, and still less that men rule women.

If, in addition, we pay attention to human passions, namely, that men mostly love women only due to the affect of lust, and their talents and prudence are valued only insofar as they are distinguished by beauty, and, besides, that men do not tolerate that the women they love show favor to others in some way, etc., then we can easily see that the equal participation of men and women in government is fraught with great damage to the world.

Immanuel Kant. Observations on the sense of beauty and sublime

“A woman has a stronger natural inclination towards everything beautiful, elegant and elegant. Already in childhood, women dress up with great desire and find pleasure in jewelry. They are clean and very sensitive to everything that causes disgust.

They love a joke, and if only they are in a good mood, they can be amused with trinkets. Very early they acquire a well-behaved appearance, they know how to behave and control themselves; and all this at an age when our well-bred male youth is still unbridled, clumsy and shy.

Women are very sympathetic, kind-hearted and compassionate, they prefer the beautiful to the useful, and what they have left from the cost of subsistence, they willingly set aside in order to spend more on external glamor and finery.

Reflection and long reflection are noble, but difficult, and not particularly suitable for persons in whom natural beauty should only testify to the beautiful nature.

Difficult teaching or too abstract reasoning (even if a woman could achieve perfection in this) nullifies the virtues inherent in the female sex.

Friedrich Nietzsche. Human, too human

“Women secretly always intrigue against the higher soul of their husbands; they want to deprive her of her future in favor of a fearless and calm existence in the present.

Women's natural inclination towards a calm, even, happily harmonious existence and intercourse, the oily and pacifying element in their activities on the sea of ​​life, involuntarily counteracts the more heroic inner drive of the free mind. Without noticing it, the women act as if all the stones were removed from the path of the wandering mineralogist so that he would not hurt his legs, while he went out on the road to stumble upon them.

Arthur Schopenhauer. Parerga and Paralipomena

“The nobler and more perfect a thing, the later and slower it reaches its maturity. A man acquires the maturity of reason and spiritual strength hardly before the age of twenty-eight; woman - with the eighteenth year. But on the other hand, such is the mind: quite meagerly measured.

Therefore, women remain children all their lives, they always see only the nearest, cling to the present, accept the appearance of things as the essence of the matter and prefer trifles to the most important occupations.

Thanks to the mind, a person does not live, like an animal, only in the present, but surveys and discusses the past and the future, from which his caution, care and frequent concern stem. In the benefits and disadvantages resulting from this, a woman participates less than a man, due to her weaker mind.

Rather, she is distinguished by spiritual myopia: her intuitive (directly perceiving) mind sees sharply near, but has a narrow outlook, which does not include the distant.

Therefore, everything that is absent, the past, acts on women much weaker than on us, which is why they often meet in them and sometimes reach insanity inclination to wastefulness (waste).

Women are convinced in their souls that the purpose of men is to earn money, and to spend it, if possible, even during the life of the husband, or at least after his death.

Otto Weininger. Gender and character

“While a man, taken from an anatomical point of view, may be psychologically quite like a woman, a woman can never be psychologically like a man, no matter how masculine her appearance may be and no matter how little feminine the impression she makes. .

Now we can with certainty give a definitive answer to the question of the giftedness of the sexes: there are women with some traits of genius, but there is no female genius, it never was (even among the courageous women about whom history and the first part of our work speak), never will not. Whoever shows indecision in this matter and expands the concept of genius to such an extent that even women can partly fit under it, will thereby completely destroy this concept.

The nature of a woman, whose essential feature is the lack of certainty of logical concepts, no less convincingly than her poorly developed consciousness proves that a woman does not have her own "I".