Women in the History of Philosophy

Abstract

University programs in the History of Philosophy themselves testify that the consideration given to women involved in philosophy has been very little or negligible, and so the impression might be that they virtually played no part in the history of »the Queen of the Sciences.« However this is far from the truth. There have been women, beginning with the Pythagorean school, and women mystics throughout the Middle Ages and modern contemporary period, who were in fact involved in philosophy not just as students of philosophers, but on the contrary, as those who independently examined and wrote philosophical works. For many of them philosophy was closely connected with their lives and often also with their life's destiny. One could say, generally speaking, that they brought passion into the gardens of philosophy. In the contemporary period they had to fight for their status and reputation in academic circles where they often received no help neither in legal matters nor on the psychological plane. This was partly due to the fact that their thought did not always follow the well trodden paths of philosophical disciplines, but still it found its application in the political and social spheres. There it achieved results which have become mankind's legacy and today are self-understood.