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3Early modern women philosophers and politics: Accommodating sphere restrictionsPhilosophy Compass 19 (6). 2024.In his Politics, Aristotle decreed that human beings needed to take part in politics to flourish, but that women, despite being human, needed to stay at home and away from politics. This paper offers an overview of how early modern women philosophers worked to makes their lives more political despite being constricted to the domestic sphere. Lucrezia Marinella argued that the home was like a small city, requiring quasi political skill to run, Cavendish believed that politics should cover the hom…Read more
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16Reviewing women’s philosophical works during the French revolution: the case of P.-L. RoedererHistory of European Ideas 49 (8): 1332-1344. 2023.This paper looks at selected reviews of women’s philosophical (and literary) works by Revolutionary author and politician Pierre-Louis Roederer. This study occasions the following remarks. Women’s works, when they raised political radical and sometimes feminist agendas were not only read and reviewed, but considered part of the general Revolutionary effort to relieve social and political inequalities. Secondly Roederer appears, from these reviews, as committed to convincing the French intellectu…Read more
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15Liberty in Their Names: The Women Philosophers of the French RevolutionBloomsbury. 2022.Telling the story of three overlooked revolutionary thinkers, Liberty in Their Names explores the lives and works of Olympe de Gouges, Sophie de Grouchy and Manon Roland. All three were thinking and writing about political philosophy, especially equality and social justice, before the French Revolution. As they became engaged in its efforts, their political writing became more urgent. At a time when women could neither vote nor speak at the Assembly, they became influential through their writing…Read more
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10WollstonecraftIn Graham Oppy (ed.), A Companion to Atheism and Philosophy, Wiley. 2019.Although William Godwin in his biography of his late wife Mary Wollstonecraft suggested that she died an atheist, there is no evidence to support this. It seems on the contrary that throughout the evolution of her moral and political thought, despite some very obvious tensions between theism, feminism, and republicanism, Wollstonecraft maintained a religious perspective. This chapter looks at the evolution of her religious thinking and some of the ways in which she could have, but did not, becom…Read more
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The hardboiled detective as moralist : ethics in crime fictionIn Timothy Chappell (ed.), Values and virtues: Aristotelianism in contemporary ethics, Oxford University Press. 2006.
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14Marie-Fréderique Pellegrin (ed.), Repenser la philosophie du XVIIe siècle. Canons et corpus, special issue of Dix‑septième siècle, no. 296, 2022/3, Presses Universitaires de France (review)Journal of Early Modern Studies 11 (2): 147-152. 2023.
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54The Social and Political Philosophy of Mary Wollstonecraft (edited book)Oxford University Press UK. 2016.Interest in the contribution made by women to the history of philosophy is burgeoning. At the forefront of this revival is Mary Wollstonecraft. While she has long been studied by feminists, and later discovered by political scientists, philosophers themselves have only recently begun to recognise the value of her work for their discipline. This volume brings together new essays from leading scholars, which explore Wollstonecraft's range as a moral and political philosopher of note, both taking a…Read more
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31Cocks on Dunghills – Wollstonecraft and Gouges on the Women’s RevolutionSATS 23 (2): 135-152. 2022.While many historians and philosophers have sought to understand the ‘failure’ of the French Revolution to thrive and to avoid senseless violence, very few have referred to the works of two women philosophers who diagnosed the problems as they were happening. This essay looks at how Mary Wollstonecraft and Olympe de Gouges theorised the new tyranny that grew out of the French Revolution, that of ‘petty tyrants’ who found themselves like ‘cocks on a dunghill’ able to wield a new power over those …Read more
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11Olympe de GougesCambridge University Press. 2022.Olympe de Gouges, though a well-known historical figure, has not been investigated as a philosopher until quite recently. Yet, many of her writings have philosophical import, whether they are written in the genre of the philosophical treatise, drama or political pamphlets. In the three main sections, the author gives an overview of some of her arguments, showing their originality and their relevance to debates contemporary to her and to us. In the introduction, the author addresses the question …Read more
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15Women Philosophers on Autonomy: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (edited book)Routledge. 2018.We encounter autonomy in virtually every area of philosophy: in its relation with rationality, personality, self-identity, authenticity, freedom, moral values and motivations, and forms of government, legal, and social institutions. At the same time, the notion of autonomy has been the subject of significant criticism. Some argue that autonomy outweighs or even endangers interpersonal or collective values, while others believe it alienates subjects who don't possess a strong form of autonomy. Th…Read more
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11Wollstonecraft Philosophy, Passion, and Politics: by Sylvana Tomaselli, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1971, xv + 607 pp., £25.00 (hbk), ISBN: 978-0-691-16903-3 (review)International Journal of Philosophical Studies 29 (2): 251-253. 2021.There are several great biographies of Wollstonecraft out there and a growing number of books discussing her works. Sylvana Tomaselli’s book is neither and both: as an intellectual biography, it dr...
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26Wollstonecraft Philosophy, Passion, and PoliticsInternational Journal of Philosophical Studies 29 (2): 251-253. 2021.There are several great biographies of Wollstonecraft out there and a growing number of books discussing her works. Sylvana Tomaselli’s book is neither and both: as an intellectual biography, it dr...
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40Revolution and Republicanism: Women Political Philosophers of Late Eighteenth-Century France and Why They MatterAustralasian Philosophical Review 3 (4): 351-370. 2019.In this article, I present the arguments of three republican women philosophers of eighteenth-century France, focusing especially on two themes: equality (of class, gender, and race) and the family. I argue that these philosophers, Olympe de Gouges, Marie-Jeanne Phlipon Roland, and Sophie de Grouchy, who are interesting and original in their own right, belong to the neo-republican tradition and that re-discovering their texts is an opportunity to reflect on women’s perspectives on the ideas that…Read more
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8Negotiating Context: How to Ensure Women’s Works Remain Their OwnAustralasian Philosophical Review 3 (4): 431-442. 2019.
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9The caring citizenForum for European Philosophy Blog. 2015.Why learning to care should be compulsory for all, according to Sandrine Berges.
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16From Sympathy to Social ReformProceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy 29 19-23. 2018.Proponents of care ethics tend to reject the ideals of historical republicanism and the enlightenment because they do not take into account the centrality of the roles played by carers or caregivers in society. Furthermore this is irremediable because of enlightenment’s prizing of reason over and above emotions and of independence over relationships. In this paper I argue that such a wholesale rejection is misguided because it is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the ideals of enlighten…Read more
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32The Wollstonecraftian Mind (edited book)Routledge. 2019.There has been a rising interest in the study of Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) in philosophy, political theory, literary studies and the history of political thought in recent decades. The Wollstonecraftian Mind seeks to provide a comprehensive survey of her work, not only placing it in its historical context but also exploring its contemporary significance. Comprising 38 chapters by a team of international contributors this handbook covers: the background to Wollstonecraft’s work Wollstonec…Read more
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31Women and Liberty 1600–1800: Philosophical Essays ed. by Jacqueline Broad, Karen DetlefsenJournal of the History of Philosophy 57 (1): 166-167. 2019.This book, comprised of thirteen essays and an introduction by the editors, is an exploration of the concept of liberty—moral and political, theological and metaphysical —in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The topic in itself is interesting, raising the question of the extent to which moral and political liberty are related to metaphysical liberty. With the possible exception of Catherine Cockburn, these types of liberty seem harder to separate in the centuries under discussion than th…Read more
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60Olympe de Gouges versus Rousseau: Happiness, Primitive Societies, and the TheaterJournal of the American Philosophical Association 4 (4): 433-451. 2018.InLe Bonheur Primitif, Olympe de Gouges takes on Rousseau's account of the evolution of human society in his first twoDiscourses, and she argues that primitive human beings were not only happy, but also capable of virtue. I argue that in that text, Gouges offers a contribution to the eighteenth-century debate on human progress that is distinct from Rousseau's in that it takes seriously the contribution of women and families to human happiness and progress. I show how the concept of emulation pla…Read more
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25Lucretia and the Impossibility of Female Republicanism in Margaret Cavendish's Sociable LettersHypatia 33 (4): 663-680. 2018.Margaret Cavendish is known for her personal allegiance to monarchy in England. This is reflected in her writings; as Hobbes did, she tended to criticize severely any attempt at rebellion and did not think England could become a republic. Yet it seems that Cavendish did have sympathy with some republican values, in particular, as Lisa Walters has argued, with the republican concept of freedom as nondomination. How can we explain this apparent inconsistency? I believe that the answer lies in a la…Read more
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34What’s it got to do with the price of bread? Condorcet and Grouchy on freedom and unreasonable laws in commerceEuropean Journal of Political Theory 17 (4): 432-448. 2018.István Hont identified a point in the history of political thought at which republicanism and commercialism became separated. According to Hont, Emmanuel Sieyès proposed that a monarchical republic should be formed. By contrast the Jacobins, in favour of a republic led by the people, rejected not only Sieyès’s political proposal, but also the economic ideology that went with it. Sieyès was in favour of a commercial republic; the Jacobins were not. This was, according to Hont, a defining moment i…Read more
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5Women Philosophers on Autonomy (edited book)Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. 2018.We encounter autonomy in virtually every area of philosophy: in its relation with rationality, personality, self-identity, authenticity, freedom, moral values and motivations, and forms of government, legal, and social institutions. At the same time, the notion of autonomy has been the subject of significant criticism. Some argue that autonomy outweighs or even endangers interpersonal or collective values, while others believe it alienates subjects who don’t possess a strong form of autonomy. Th…Read more
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40Family, Gender, and Progress: Sophie de Grouchy and Her Exclusion in the Publication of Condorcet’s Sketch of Human ProgressJournal of the History of Ideas 79 (2): 267-283. 2018.I examine some of the evidence for collaboration between Condorcet and Sophie de Grouchy on the writing of the Sketch of Human Progress, but also uncover the ways in which the publication and reception of that text worked to exclude a woman who was a philosopher in her own right from a work she clearly contributed to. I show that at least one passage that was added in the 1795 edition makes the work philosophically more interesting.
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18Proponents of the capabilities approach claim that it should be used to give guidance for the implementation of good constitutional laws. This suggests that it also gives us grounds to support attempts to create or protect constitutions based on something like the capabilities approach. The Turkish Republic claims that in order to protect secularism and the equal status of women, it needs to keep certain Islamic practices away from the public domain. The wearing of the headscarf has been singled…Read more
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24Secrétariat, collaboration et auto-publication dans la France révolutionnairePhilosophiques 44 (2): 255-270. 2017.What can a woman from 18th Century in France do to get published? That is a question which women philosophers who were involved in politics in the revolutionary era were obliged to ask themselves. Contributing to political debates might have a beneficial effect on the status of women in the society of the future. But who would want to invest money to promulgate the work of those who could not defend it in the Assembly, because, as women, they were not citizens? I propose three models : that of M…Read more
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81The Impossibility of Perfection. Aristotle, Feminism, and the Complexities of Ethics. By Michael Slote. (New York: Oxford UP, 2011. Pp. ix + 167. Price £30.00.)Philosophical Quarterly 63 (252): 624-626. 2013.
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