Eileen O'Neill - Böcker

When Eileen O'Neill (1953-2017) published her ground-breaking essay, "Disappearing Ink: Early Modern Women Philosophers and the History of Philosophy" in 1998, women philosophers were virtually absent from encyclopedias of philosophy and the numerous histories and anthologies of early modern thought. This essay would come to have an enormous impact, signaling the beginning of the movement to introduce early modern women philosophers into the canon. In its densely-packed 46 pages, "Disappearing Ink" presented the names, major works, and principal theses of literally dozens of forgotten women, whose works were published during the early modern period and who had engaged in correspondence with central male figures but whose names and works had since been erased. Disappearing Ink reprints this now-canonical piece together with subsequent essays, some widely read, some harder to locate, and one, on "Cartesianism and the Gendered Mind", written in 2013 and published here for the first time. The essays in Part I develop O'Neill's views on feminist history of philosophy, articulating an account of feminist historiography that is inclusive yet at the same time textually nuanced. The essays in Part II provide in-depth treatment of individual figures and themes. These essays discuss the views of early modern women philosophers such as Mary Astell, Margaret Cavendish, and Mme de Lambert alongside those of Descartes, Leibniz, Poullain de la Barre, and the Scholastics, engaging with questions of mind-body interaction, occasional causation, physical influx, pan-organicism, and whether the Cartesian mind is gendered. The sole essay in Part III departs from the historical orientation of Parts I and II. This essay, informed by O'Neill's deep knowledge of art history, is an illuminating study of agency in representations of women in feminist erotic art of the 1980s. Combined, these works trace the complete arc of O'Neill's thought, from painstaking studies of individual themes and figures to a sweeping vision of how feminism should inform our approach to the history of early modern thought--indeed, to the history of philosophy more generally. More than anyone else, O'Neill explained why women were excluded from the canon and showed how they could be incorporated into it.

Scholarship in the history of modern philosophy has changed dramatically in the last hundred years. Early in the twentieth century, philosophers such as Bertrand Russell and others regularly wrote on historical topics and figures, albeit from the perspective of their own contemporary concerns. But gradually, interest in the historical Descartes, Kant, and other figures fell off as more analytical approaches came to dominate. This lasted until the late 1960's, which saw a profound renaissance in historical scholarship. Philosophers rediscovered the vitality of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century philosophy, using both analytical approaches--which look at historical problems through a contemporary conceptual lens--and historical approaches, which reconstruct the views of philosophers from within their conceptual framework. There is now a vital, international community engaged in this scholarship. This volume showcases the best work now being written on a wide range of issues in early modern philosophy--a period in which numerous philosophical problems that continue to engage us today were first identified by Locke, Berkeley, Kant, Spinoza, Leibniz, and Descartes. Collectively the articles exemplify the diversity of methodological perspectives currently being employed by some of the most distinguished, internationally recognized experts in the field.

Margaret Cavendish's 1668 edition of Observations upon Experimental Philosophy, presented here in a 2001 edition, holds a unique position in early modern philosophy. Cavendish rejects the Aristotelianism which was taught in the universities in the seventeenth century, and the picture of nature as a grand machine which was propounded by Hobbes, Descartes and members of the Royal Society of London, such as Boyle. She also rejects the views of nature which make reference to immaterial spirits. Instead she develops an original system of organicist materialism, and draws on the doctrines of ancient Stoicism to attack the tenets of seventeenth-century mechanical philosophy. Her treatise is a document of major importance in the history of women's contributions to philosophy and science.

Margaret Cavendish's 1668 edition of Observations upon Experimental Philosophy, presented here in a 2001 edition, holds a unique position in early modern philosophy. Cavendish rejects the Aristotelianism which was taught in the universities in the seventeenth century, and the picture of nature as a grand machine which was propounded by Hobbes, Descartes and members of the Royal Society of London, such as Boyle. She also rejects the views of nature which make reference to immaterial spirits. Instead she develops an original system of organicist materialism, and draws on the doctrines of ancient Stoicism to attack the tenets of seventeenth-century mechanical philosophy. Her treatise is a document of major importance in the history of women's contributions to philosophy and science.

Over the course of the past twenty-five years, feminist theory has had a forceful impact upon the history of Western philosophy. The present collection of essays has as its primary aim to evaluate past women’s published philosophical work, and to introduce readers to newly recovered female figures; the collection will also make contributions to the history of the philosophy of gender, and to the history of feminist social and political philosophy, insofar as the collection will discuss women’s views on these issues.The volume contains contributions by an international group of leading historians of philosophy and political thought, whose scholarship represents some of the very best work being done in North and Central America, Canada, Europe and Australia.