Ancient Women Philosophers
Recovered Ideas and New Perspectives

This book studies largely unresearched ideas of ancient women philosophers and recovers their contributions to the history of philosophy.

Katharine R. O'Reilly (Edited by), Caterina Pellò (Edited by)

9781316516188, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 31 August 2023

290 pages
28 x 19 x 2.3 cm, 0.651 kg

'Any reinterpretation of the history of philosophy that includes the voices of women must begin with the ancient women thinkers. Pelló and O'Reilly succeed in creating a new framework beyond the Christian Western tradition. Part of this new perspective is indebted to the ideas of women thinkers from the Indian, Chinese, and Arab worlds. The book offers a fresh approach that renovates our understanding of ancient women thinkers and their reception, and also renews the concept of ancient philosophy.' Ruth E. Hagengruber, University of Paderborn

Despite the common misconception that ancient philosophy was the domain of male thinkers, sources confirm that ancient women engaged in philosophical activity. Bringing together a collection of essays on ancient women thinkers, with special focus on their ideas and contributions to the history of philosophy, this volume is about the earliest women philosophers, their breakthroughs, and the methods we can use to excavate them. The essays survey the methodological strategies we can use to approach the surviving evidence, retrieve the largely unresearched thought and the original ideas of ancient women philosophers, and carve out a space for them in the canon. The broad focus includes women thinkers in ancient Indian, Chinese, and Arabic philosophy as well as in the Greek and Roman philosophical traditions. The volume will be valuable for a wide range of researchers, teachers, and students of ancient philosophy.

Introduction: the value of women philosophers for the history of philosophy Caterina Pellò and Katharine R. O'Reilly
1. Beyond gender: the voice of Diotima Frisbee C. C. Sheffield
2. Sulabh? and Indian philosophy: rhetoric, gender, and philosophy in the Mah?bh?rata Brian Black
3. Women's medical knowledge in antiquity: beyond midwifery Sophia M. Connell
4. Ancient women epicureans and their anti-hedonist critics Kelly Arenson
5. Arete of Cyrene and the role of women in philosophical lineage Katharine R. O'Reilly
6. Women at the crossroads: life and death for the stoic wife Kate Meng Brassel
7. Pythagorean women and the domestic as a philosophical topic Rosemary Twomey
8. Perictione, mother of metaphysics: a new philosophical reading of on wisdom Giulia De Cesaris and Caterina Pellò
9. Not veiled in silence: the case for macrina Anna B. Christensen
10. Women philosophers and ideals of being a woman in Neoplatonic schools of late antiquity: the examples of Sosipatra of Ephesus and Hypatia of Alexandria Jana Schultz
11. Reappraising Ban Zhao: the advent of Chinese women philosophers Ann A. Pang-White
12. The reception of Plato on women: Proclus, Averroes, Marinella Peter Adamson
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA]