5 women philosophers who became famous at a time when women and philosophy were considered incompatible

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

There is an old anecdote: “There are two sailing along the river, a man and a woman. The man smokes and the woman row. 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 to their occupation and women. But even in those days when it took a lot of fortitude and a lot of effort to break into science and force a woman to talk about her work, women's names flashed in the horizon of philosophy. Yes, women have always wanted not only to row, but also to think about life.

Hypatia of Alexandria: a victim of political showdown

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

The father of Hypatia was one of the most prominent scholars of his time, Theon of Alexandria. Apparently, he did not suffer from prejudices regarding 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 to fifty years (the normal start of such a career), Hypatia began to lecture at her father's school under Museion, the very 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 school of Neoplatonism. After the death of her father, the scientist took over the leadership of his school, as his main student. Slava and Hypatia and her educational institution attracted many students, so the school flourished even without municipal funding. There were many senior government officials among the alumni. The early Christian philosopher-theologian Bishop Synesius also graduated from it.

“She has acquired such scholarship that she surpassed her contemporary philosophers; was the successor of the Platonic school, descended from Plato, and taught all philosophical sciences to those who wish. Therefore, those wishing to study philosophy flocked to her from all sides. By her education, with a respectable self-confidence, she presented herself with modesty even in the face of rulers; and in that she did not supply any shame that she appeared among men, for for her extraordinary modesty everyone respected her and marveled at her, the historian Socrates Scholastic wrote later.

The death of Hypatia was terrible. She had a great influence on the mayor, and his political opponent, Bishop Cyril, told his flock that Hypatia was bewitching the mayor with pagan spells 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 were burned down together with the Alexandrian Library. We only have memories of the scientist herself.

Lou Salomé: a triangle featuring Nietzsche

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

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

At twenty-five, Lou marries Orientalist professor Friedrich Karl Andreas. Andreas is much older and Lou only agrees to his proposal after he tries to stick a knife in his chest. Nevertheless, she sets a condition for her husband: no intimate relationships. Salome and Andreas lived together for forty-three years, and by all indications, they really did not touch each other. Lou preferred to let younger men into her bed. Andreas also played on the side; his daughter from 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 passed away in 1937, and immediately after Salome's death, the Nazis solemnly burned down her library.

Tullia d'Aragona: the ugliest courtesan in Italy

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

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

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 around certain 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 an admirer of her sharp thought and literary talent.

Tullia, one of the few courtesans, was eventually given the right to disregard the dress code for courtesans and to be officially called a "poetess" by occupation. Given the prejudice against women and especially those who lead unrighteous lives, this recognition of achievement is worth a lot.

Christina of Pisa: the 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 as they are, proceeding from the fact that in general everything is fair and some people (not they) are naturally born to suffer and row on a boat. It is understandable that when a woman came to philosophy, she, on the contrary, proceeded from the fact that socially arranged unfairly. 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 pro-feminists. Among them is one of the very first thinkers protesting against the position of women in society, Christina Pizanskaya.

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 Louvre library was the largest in Europe, so Christina was read from childhood by Italian and Roman authors.

At the age of fifteen, however, Christina was treated exactly the same as with illiterate girls - they were married to a much older man. She gave birth to three children from him. 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 survived, the young widow found herself in a difficult situation.

She managed to find patrons for herself, Jean Berry and Duke Louis of Orleans. The children were no longer babies, new children were not expected, the patrons gave out at least a tiny, but firm boarding house, and Christina took up the business she had dreamed of for a long time: literature.

Over the next nine years, Christina wrote more than three hundred love ballads and poems. They made her quite famous: the poet 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 poet, but as the creator of the "Book of the City of Women", a philosophical work that substantiates the initial equality of women and men in abilities and talents.

This book served as the beginning of the so-called "debate about women", a long public, mostly written discussion that unfolded in France more than a hundred years after the book was published. Among the participants in the dispute was Montaigne's student, the thinker Marie de Gournet, whose scandalous fame can only be compared with the glory of the women philosophers Simone de Beauvoir and Andrea Dvorkin in the twentieth century. Despite ideas contrary to tradition, de Gournet paid the pension himself Cardinal Richelieu - 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 monarchy; 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 will not seem like something sharp, but they greatly annoyed Napoleon and were among the reasons for his decision to expel Madame de Stael.

As you know, at the very mention of Anna, Napoleon's face changed. He discussed it only with a personal touch and, in order to sign a decree on exile, even distracted himself from topical foreign policy issues.

Anna was the daughter of the finance minister 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 ideologist. Her first philosophical work was a commentary on Monteccio's Spirit of the Law - and she wrote them at the age of fifteen, amazing adult acquaintances with her ability to formulate thoughts.

At 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 Anna's philosophical nature. Despite the fact that her whole 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 her expulsion shocked half of Europe with her reflections 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 genius woman in a society where a woman has no right to be a genius. The same theme is raised in another, more scandalous for contemporaries novel "Dolphin". De Stael is also known for her deep ethnographic work 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 "The Years of Exile."

Despite the fact that de Stael was described with the words "ugly as hell, smart as an angel", there were enough novels in her life, including with men much younger. The 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 an evening with the minister and fell right on the steps of his house. For several months she lay sick and breathed her last breath on the anniversary of her beloved Revolution.

Famous courtesans of the East, who remained in the history of art of their countries, also destroyed stereotypes with their talent, the memory of which has remained for centuries.