The Routledge Handbook of Women and Early Modern European Philosophy is an outstanding reference source for the wide range of philosophical contributions made by women writing in Europe from about 1560 to 1780. It shows the range of genres and methods used by women writing in these centuries in Europe, thus encouraging an expanded understanding of our historical canon. Comprising 46 chapters by a team of contributors from all over the globe, including early career researchers, the Handbook is divided into the following sections:

I. Context
II. Themes
     A. Metaphysics and Epistemology
     B. Natural Philosophy
     C. Moral Philosophy
     D. Social-Political Philosophy
III. Figures
IV. State of the Field

The volume is essential reading for students and researchers in philosophy who are interested in expanding their understanding of the richness of our philosophical past, including in order to offer expanded, more inclusive syllabi for their students. It is also a valuable resource for those in related fields like gender and women?s studies; history; literature; sociology; history and philosophy of science; and political science.

Table of Contents:

1: Introduction; Part I: Context; 2: Women and Institutions in Early Modern Europe; 3: Canon, Gender, and Historiography; 4: Method, Genre, and the Scope of Philosophy; Part II: Themes; 5: God, Freedom, and Perfection in Conway, Astell, and du Châtelet; 6: Vitalistic Causation; 7: It's All Alive! Cavendish and Conway against Dualism; 8: Margaret Cavendish, Anne Conway, and Catharine Cockburn on Matter; 9: Skepticism; 10: Ways of Knowing; Part II: Section B: Natural Philosophy; 11: Space and Time; 12: Method and Explanation; 13: Physics and Optics; 14: Women, Medicine, and the Life Sciences; 15: Theories of Perception; Part II: Section C: Moral Philosophy; 16: Early Modern Women and the Metaphysics of Free Will; 17: Friendship as a Means to Freedom; 18: Managing Mockery; 19: Virtue and Moral Obligation; 20: Men, Women, Equality, and Difference; Part II: Section D: Social-Political Philosophy; 21: Autonomy and Marriage; 22: Slavery and Servitude in Seventeenth-Century Feminism; 23: Race and Gender in Early Modern Philosophy; 24: Early Modern European Women and the Philosophy of Education; 25: Critical Perspectives on Religion; 26: Beauty, Gender, and Power from Marinelli to Wollstonecraft; 27: Theories of the State; Part III: Figures; 28: Italian Women Philosophers in the Sixteenth Century; 29: Teresa de Ávila on Self-Knowledge; 30: (Self-)Portraits between Two Gowns; 31: Madeleine de Scudéry; 32: The Unorthodox Margaret Cavendish; 33: Anne Conway; 34: Gabrielle Suchon on Women's Freedom; 35: The Socratic Pedagogy of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz; 36: Mary Astell (1666?1731); 37: Damaris Masham and Catharine Trotter Cockburn; 38: Du Châtelet and the Philosophy of Physics; 39: The Real Consequences of Imaginary Things; 40: Catharine Macaulay's Philosophy and Her Influence on Mary Wollstonecraft; 41: Phillis Wheatley and the Limits of the History of Philosophy; 42: Mary Wollstonecraft; 43: Remorse and Moral Progress in Sophie de Grouchy's Letters on Sympathy; 44: Mary Shepherd (1777?1847); 45: Women and Philosophy in the German Context; Part IV: State of the Field; 46: What Difference? The Renaissance of Women Philosophers

Natural sciences in general, history of science, philosophy of science

Philosophy in general

Ethics

Metaphysics and ontology

Epistemology

Religious sciences in general

Natural sciences in general, history of science, philosophy of science (charity campaign)

Philosophy in general (charity campaign)

Ethics (charity campaign)

Metaphysics and ontology (charity campaign)

Epistemology (charity campaign)

Religious sciences in general (charity campaign)

The Routledge Handbook of Women and Early Modern European Philosophy

An outstanding reference source?for the wide range of philosophical contributions made by women writing in Europe from about 1560 to 1780. It shows the range of genres and methods used by women writing in these centuries in Europe, thus encouraging an expanded understanding of our historical canon.