Women Philosophers in Antiquity: Open Questions and Some Results

Already in 1690 Gilles Ménage’s Historia Mulierum Philosopharum noticed sixty-five women philosophers and classified them according to the school or sect with which each was associated. Yet, until recently, standard histories of philosophy have excluded or undervalued the role of women in the discipline. Some revisionary accounts, such as Waithe’s (A History of Women Philosophers, 1987), have sought to rectify this situation but, in doing so, they have sometimes adopted excessively restrictive criteria for inclusion, such as the survival—direct or indirect—of writings attributable to women. With specific reference to the cultural and material conditions of the ancient world, we consider some alternative approaches to the formation of a canon of women engaged with philosophy, bearing in mind how these are also freighted with consequences for our general conception of what it is to be a philosopher.