Women in Philosophy:

 Section 12 Midterm Report - Melissa, Diamond, Jordan 

Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates. They are the Big Three of Philosophy. All of their teachings and thoughts laid down the foundation of what we have today for philosophy. Some philosophers build their teachings and thoughts off of them. Philosophers uses their theories in their work; it influences them. There could be a misconception that philosophy is only for men. This can come off as a surprise, but philosophy is one of the lowest earned doctorates among women. This is out of economics, math, chemistry, physics, and linguistics. The most recent data percentage of women in full time positions was from 2003 and was 16.6% of a total of 13,000 philosophers. 

These facts may be surprising to you, and there is not much data or information out there because of the underappreciation and lack of women in philosophy. 

One important woman in philosophy was a British philosopher named Philippa Foot. She was very influential in advancing moral philosophy. She came up with The Trolley Problem. This became a very popular topic in thought of ethics, there is not supposed to be a perfect outcome. 

Another important woman in philosophy was G.E.M. (Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret) Anscombe. She was considered as one of the most gifted women philosophers. Most of her work contributed to moral philosophy (virtue effects and double effect) and the action theory. Her work was influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein, he became her lecturer in school. Most of her influential work was from the nature of causation.

Mary Wollstonecraft was very important to philosophy, and became one of the founding women philosophers. She wrote about politics, and history, and different points within philosophy. This included reviews, translations, and pamphlets. She also wrote a book, Vindication of the Rights of Woman. This book became one of the earliest works in feminism philosophy. She is also a proto-feminist and became very widely recognized during the women's movement in the 60s.

Hypatia was a female philosopher, mathematician and astronomer from Alexandria, Egypt. She grew up in the era of ancient philosophy but studied believed more of, what we call today, western philosophy. She was a Hellenistic Neoplatonist, she influenced by many other famous philosophers, by the name of Pluto, Aristotle, Plotinus, and more. She also taught many people in the school of Neoplatonist, such as synesius of Cyrene, who later became a bishop of Ptolemais. She was like among the Pagon and Christian community and was well known for her teaching about politics to the locals.

Cause of death: although she was like amount them rumor spread about her preventing Orestes from reconciling with Cyril, and was later killed by Christian  mob led by a led a lector named Peter.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypatia

Hannah Arednt She was an American-German, who taught philosophy and political theory.She mostly taught the people while a teacher and then when she fled from Germany during the war, she wanted to teach our shares worlds more about totalitarianism, and wrote many books. She wanted to provide a fresh and new look to the political life by developing a new set of philosophical categories. She believed more on an inclusive perspective. 

Cause of death: Heart Attack

Favorite Quote: “ The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.” 

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hannah-Arendt

Ayn Rand, a Russian-American, who was a writer along with a philosopher. She believed in the concept of objectivism. After being asked many time what she was and what her philosophy was she simply answered that she was both, a writer and philosopher. Her new idea of philosophy was that it was mainly used to change the lives of individuals or human history. Her philosophy was objective but she would mostly refer to it as “ the philosophy of living on earth.” Objectivism, was used to show people that you live for you and the good is to live it through, for yourself and no one else. 

Www.aynrand.org/about/about-ayn-rand

There is a lack of women in philosophy. Not just women who study philosophy, but discussion of women philosophers in the classroom. After bringing light to a few of the women and their philosophical views, we’d also like to briefly talk about the possible effects of women not being represented and why it is so important that we recognize voices that are not usually heard. Overall, philosophy is a conversation and it becomes limited when certain voices are left out.  



Discussion Questions:

1. You see a runaway trolley moving toward five tied-up (or otherwise incapacitated) people lying on the main track. You are standing next to a lever that controls a switch. If you pull the lever, the trolley will be redirected onto a side track, and the five people on the main track will be saved. However, there is a single person lying on the side track. You have two options: 

Do nothing and allow the trolley to kill the five people on the main track
Pull the lever, diverting the trolley onto the side track where it will kill one person.
Which is the more ethical option? Or, more simply: What is the right thing to do?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem 

2. Who is your favorite philosopher? Man or woman? Why?

3. Why do you think women aren't majoring in philosophy? Is there a lack of interest?

4. How important is representation to you?

5.Why in your opinion do you feel women philosophers are less mentioned in today's society?

6.Why in the decades that Arendt and Rand were in that tended to discuss more about political theory and inclusiveness, more than anything else going on around them?

7.Why did you think the women of philosophy wanted to change the outlook of philosophy that the world chose for it to be?


Quiz Questions:

1. Name one woman in philosophy. (does not necessarily have to be from this presentation)

2. Which one of the woman philosophers I named that was a proto-feminist?

3.Name philosophers that influenced Hypatia? Plato, Aristotle, Theon of Alexander...

4.What was Rand's outlook on philosophy?  That you must a little about the world you live in and that you should understand to the best of your ability and deal with it.

5.Other than philosophy, what was Arendt's main focus?  Political Theory, or Inclusiveness.