UI Press | Jane Duran | Eight Women Philosophers: Theory, Politics, and Feminism

Eight Women Philosophers

Theory, Politics, and Feminism

A unique examination of women philosophers in the Western tradition, from the medieval period to the twentieth century

Spanning over nine hundred years, Eight Women Philosophers is the first singly-authored work to trace the themes of standard philosophical theorizing and feminist thought across women philosophers in the Western tradition. Jane Duran has crafted a comprehensive overview of eight women philosophers--Hildegard of Bingen, Anne Conway, Mary Astell, Mary Wollstonecraft, Harriet Taylor Mill, Edith Stein, Simone Weil, and Simone de Beauvoir--that underscores the profound and continuing significance of these thinkers for contemporary scholars.

Duran devotes one chapter to each philosopher and provides a sustained critical analysis of her work, utilizing aspects of Continental theory, poststructuralist theory, and literary theory. She situates each philosopher within her respective era and in relation to her intellectual contemporaries, and specifically addresses the contributions each has made to major areas such as metaphysics/epistemology, theory of value, and feminist theory. She affirms the viability and importance of recovering these women's overlooked work and provides a powerful answer to the question of why the rubric "women philosophers" remains so valuable.

Jane Duran is a fellow in the department of philosophy and lecturer in Black studies, the humanities, and the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her books include Worlds of Knowing: Global Feminist Epistemologies, Philosophies of Science/Feminist Theories, and Epistemics.