List of female philosophers
Encyclopedia
A list of female philosophers ordered alphabetically by surname:
- Marilyn McCord AdamsMarilyn McCord AdamsMarilyn McCord Adams is an American philosopher working in philosophy of religion, philosophical theology and medieval philosophy.-Family:Adams is the daughter of William Clark McCord and Wilmah Brown McCord...
(born 1943) - Linda Martin AlcoffLinda Martín AlcoffLinda Martín Alcoff is a philosopher at the City University of New York who specializes in epistemology, feminism, race theory and existentialism. She is currently the vice president of the APA, Eastern Division. She earned her PhD in Philosophy from Brown University...
- Alice AmbroseAlice AmbroseAlice Ambrose Lazerowitz was an American philosopher, logician, and author.Alice Ambrose was born in Lexington, Illinois and studied philosophy and mathematics at Millikin University. After completing her PhD at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1932, she went to Cambridge University to study...
(1906–2001) - Julia AnnasJulia AnnasJulia Elizabeth Annas is a British American philosopher. She is Regents Professor of Philosophy at the University of Arizona.-Biography:...
- Tullia d'AragonaTullia d'AragonaTullia d'Aragona was a 16th century Italian courtesan, author and philosopher in Venice. She had one daughter, Penelope d'Aragona, born in 1535, and a son, Celio, by Silvestro Guiccardi....
(c. 1510-1556) - Marilena ChauiMarilena ChauíMarilena de Souza Chaui is a Brazilian philosopher. She has been teaching political and modern philosophy in the Department of Philosophy of the University of São Paulo since 1967, when she presented her dissertation on Merleau-Ponty...
(born 1941) - Diotima of MantineaDiotima of MantineaDiotima of Mantinea is a female seer who plays an important role in Plato's Symposium. Her ideas are the origin of the concept of Platonic love. Since the only source concerning her is Plato, it is uncertain whether she was a real historical personage or merely a fictional creation...
- G. E. M. AnscombeG. E. M. AnscombeGertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe , better known as Elizabeth Anscombe, was a British analytic philosopher from Ireland. A student of Ludwig Wittgenstein, she became an authority on his work and edited and translated many books drawn from his writings, above all his Philosophical Investigations...
(1918–2001) - Hannah ArendtHannah ArendtHannah Arendt was a German American political theorist. She has often been described as a philosopher, although she refused that label on the grounds that philosophy is concerned with "man in the singular." She described herself instead as a political theorist because her work centers on the fact...
(1906–1975) - Arete of CyreneArete of CyreneArete of Cyrene was a Cyrenaic philosopher, and the daughter of Aristippus of Cyrene.She learned philosophy from her father, Aristippus, who had himself learned philosophy from Socrates. Arete, in turn, taught philosophy to her son - Aristippus the Younger - hence her son was nicknamed...
(4th century BC) - AristocleaAristocleaAristoclea , wasa Greek priestess at Delphi in Ancient Greece. She was cited by many ancient writers as a tutor of the philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras ....
(6th century BC) - AspasiaAspasiaAspasia was a Milesian woman who was famous for her involvement with the Athenian statesman Pericles. Very little is known about the details of her life. She spent most of her adult life in Athens, and she may have influenced Pericles and Athenian politics...
of Miletus (5th century BC) - Mary AstellMary AstellMary Astell was an English feminist writer and rhetorician. Her advocacy of equal educational opportunities for women has earned her the title "the first English feminist."-Life and career:...
(1666–1731) - Babette BabichBabette BabichBabette E. Babich is an American philosopher known for her studies of Nietzsche, Heidegger and Hölderlin as well as for her work in aesthetics, including the history of ancient Greek sculpture, and continental philosophy, especially continental philosophy of science and technology.- Selected...
(1956–) - Annette BaierAnnette BaierAnnette C. Baier is a well-known moral philosopher and Hume scholar, focusing in particular on Hume's moral psychology. For most of her career she taught in the philosophy department at the University of Pittsburgh, having moved there from Carnegie Mellon University...
(born 1929) - Ban ZhaoBan ZhaoBān Zhāo , courtesy name Huiban , was the first known female Chinese historian. She completed her brother Ban Gu's work as he was imprisoned and executed in the year 92 BCE. because of his association with the family of Empress Dowager Dou. It was said her works could have filled eight volumes...
(c. 35–100) - Jaime LaBate Bonura
- Antoinette BrownAntoinette BrownAntoinette Louisa Brown, later Antoinette Brown Blackwell , was the first woman to be ordained as a minister in the United States...
(1825–1921) - Judith ButlerJudith ButlerJudith Butler is an American post-structuralist philosopher, who has contributed to the fields of feminism, queer theory, political philosophy, and ethics. She is a professor in the Rhetoric and Comparative Literature departments at the University of California, Berkeley.Butler received her Ph.D...
(born 1956) - Mary Whiton CalkinsMary Whiton Calkins-Early life:Mary Whiton Calkins was born on March 30, 1863 in Hartford, Connecticut; she was the eldest of five children. She moved to Massachusetts in 1880 with her family to live for the rest of her life; this is also where she began her education. In 1882, Calkins entered into Smith College as...
(1863–1930) - Nancy CartwrightNancy Cartwright (philosopher)Nancy Cartwright FBA is a professor of philosophy at the London School of Economics and the University of California at San Diego, and a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship...
(born 1943) - Margaret CavendishMargaret CavendishMargaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne was an English aristocrat, a prolific writer, and a scientist. Born Margaret Lucas, she was the youngest sister of prominent royalists Sir John Lucas and Sir Charles Lucas...
(1623–1673) - Christine de PizanChristine de PizanChristine de Pizan was a Venetian-born late medieval author who challenged misogyny and stereotypes prevalent in the male-dominated medieval culture. As a poet, she was well known and highly regarded in her own day; she completed 41 works during her 30 year career , and can be regarded as...
(c. 1365–c. 1430) - Andrea ChristofidouAndrea ChristofidouAndrea Christofidou is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Keble College and Lecturer in Philosophy at Worcester College, Oxford. She has taught philosophy at the University of Oxford since 1992, and at Keble since 2001. She previously held lectureships at New College, Balliol, and Wadham College.She...
- Patricia ChurchlandPatricia ChurchlandPatricia Smith Churchland is a Canadian-American philosopher noted for her contributions to neurophilosophy and the philosophy of mind. She has been a Professor at the University of California, San Diego since 1984...
(born 1943) - Hélène CixousHélène CixousHélène Cixous is a professor, French feminist writer, poet, playwright, philosopher, literary critic and rhetorician. She holds honorary degrees from Queen's University and the University of Alberta in Canada; University College Dublin in Ireland; the University of York and University College...
(born 1937) - Catherine Trotter CockburnCatherine Trotter CockburnCatharine Trotter Cockburn was a novelist, dramatist, and philosopher.-Life:Born to Scottish parents living in London,Trotter was raised Protestant but converted to Roman Catholicism at an early age...
(1679–1749) - Lady Anne Finch Conway (1631–1679)
- Simone de BeauvoirSimone de BeauvoirSimone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, often shortened to Simone de Beauvoir , was a French existentialist philosopher, public intellectual, and social theorist. She wrote novels, essays, biographies, an autobiography in several volumes, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and...
(1908–1986) - Émilie du ChâteletÉmilie du Châtelet-Early life:Du Châtelet was born on 17 December 1706 in Paris, the only daughter of six children. Three brothers lived to adulthood: René-Alexandre , Charles-Auguste , and Elisabeth-Théodore . Her eldest brother, René-Alexandre, died in 1720, and the next brother, Charles-Auguste, died in 1731...
(1706–1749) - Raya DunayevskayaRaya DunayevskayaRaya Dunayevskaya was the founder of the philosophy of Marxist Humanism in the United States of America. At one time Leon Trotsky's secretary, she later split with him and ultimately founded the organization News and Letters Committees and was its leader until her death.-Biography:Of Jewish...
(1910–1987) - Dorothy EdgingtonDorothy EdgingtonDorothy Edgington is a philosopher active in metaphysics and philosophical logic. She was Waynflete Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy at the University of Oxford from 2003 to 2006. Before moving to Oxford Edgington taught for many years at Birkbeck College, London and now teaches there again...
- George EliotGeorge EliotMary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
(1819–1880) - Elisabeth of BohemiaElisabeth of Bohemia, Princess PalatineElisabeth of the Palatinate , also known as Elisabeth of Bohemia, was the eldest daughter of Frederick V, who was briefly elected King of Bohemia, and Elizabeth Stuart. She ruled the Herford Abbey as Princess-Abbess Elizabeth III...
(1618–1680) - Philippa FootPhilippa FootPhilippa Ruth Foot was a British philosopher, most notable for her works in ethics. She was one of the founders of contemporary virtue ethics...
(1920-2010) - Marilyn FryeMarilyn FryeMarilyn Frye is a philosophy professor and feminist theorist. She earned her Ph.D. at Cornell University in 1969 and has taught feminist philosophy, metaphysics, and philosophy of language at Michigan State University since 1974...
- Margaret GilbertMargaret GilbertMargaret Gilbert is a philosopher best known for her work in the philosophy of social science, and, more specifically, for her founding contributions to the analytic philosophy of social phenomena...
- Charlotte Perkins GilmanCharlotte Perkins GilmanCharlotte Perkins Gilman was a prominent American sociologist, novelist, writer of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction, and a lecturer for social reform...
(1860–1935) - Emma GoldmanEmma GoldmanEmma Goldman was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century....
(1869–1940) - Marie de GournayMarie de GournayMarie de Gournay was a French writer, who wrote a novel and a number of other literary compositions, including two proto-feminist works, The Equality of Men and Women and The Ladies' Grievance . In her novel Le Promenoir de M...
(1565–1645) - Celia GreenCelia GreenCelia Elizabeth Green is a British writer on philosophical skepticism, twentieth-century thought, and psychology.- Biography :...
(born 1935) - Marjorie GreneMarjorie GreneMarjorie Glicksman Grene was an American philosopher.She wrote both on existentialism and the philosophy of science, especially the philosophy of biology. She taught at the University of California at Davis from 1965 to 1978. From 1988 until her death she was Honorary University Distinguished...
(1910-2009) - Susan HaackSusan HaackSusan Haack is an English professor of philosophy and law at the University of Miami in the United States. She has written on logic, the philosophy of language, epistemology, and metaphysics. Her pragmatism follows that of Charles Sanders Peirce.-Career:Haack is a graduate of the University of...
(born 1945) - Sally HaslangerSally HaslangerSally Haslanger is a professor of philosophy in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since 2009, she has also served as Director of the Women's and Gender Studies program. She has published in metaphysics, epistemology, feminist theory, ancient...
- Ágnes HellerÁgnes HellerÁgnes Heller is a Hungarian philosopher. A prominent Marxist thinker at first, she moved onto a liberal, social-democratic position later in her career...
(born 1929) - HeloiseHeloise (student of Abelard)Héloïse d’Argenteuil was a French nun, writer, scholar, and abbess, best known for her love affair and correspondence with Peter Abélard.- Background :...
(1101–1162) - Mary HesseMary HesseMary Brenda Hesse is a contemporary English philosopher of science. She is now professor emerita of the philosophy of science at Cambridge University....
(born 1924) - Hildegard of BingenHildegard of BingenBlessed Hildegard of Bingen , also known as Saint Hildegard, and Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, Benedictine abbess, visionary, and polymath. Elected a magistra by her fellow nuns in 1136, she founded the monasteries of Rupertsberg in 1150 and...
(1098–1179) - Hipparchia of Maroneia (4th century BC)
- Jennifer HornsbyJennifer HornsbyJennifer Hornsby is a British philosopher with interests in the philosophies of mind, action, language, as well as feminist philosophy. She is currently a professor at the School of Philosophy, Birkbeck, University of London. She is well-known for her opposition to orthodoxy in current analytic...
(born 1951) - Rosalind HursthouseRosalind Hursthouse-Biography:Hursthouse spent her childhood in New Zealand and taught for many years at the Open University in England. She was head of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Auckland from 2002 to 2005...
- Hypatia of Alexandria (370–415)
- Luce IrigarayLuce IrigarayLuce Irigaray is a Belgian feminist, philosopher, linguist, psychoanalyst, sociologist and cultural theorist. She is best known for her works Speculum of the Other Woman and This Sex Which Is Not One .-Biography:...
(born 1930) - Martha KleinMartha KleinMartha Klein is a philosopher, specialising in the intersection of the philosophy of mind and moral philosophy, and especially in the question of the freedom of the will....
- Christine KorsgaardChristine KorsgaardChristine Marion Korsgaard is an American philosopher and academic whose main scholarly interests are in moral philosophy and its history; the relation of issues in moral philosophy to issues in metaphysics, the philosophy of mind, and the theory of personal identity; the theory of personal...
- Julia KristevaJulia KristevaJulia Kristeva is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, literary critic, psychoanalyst, sociologist, feminist, and, most recently, novelist, who has lived in France since the mid-1960s. She is now a Professor at the University Paris Diderot...
(born 1941) - Susanne LangerSusanne LangerSusanne Katherina Langer was an American philosopher of mind and of art who was influenced by Ernst Cassirer and Alfred North Whitehead. She was one of the first women to achieve an academic career in philosophy and the first to be popularly and professionally recognized as an American philosopher...
(1895–1985) - Michèle Le DœuffMichèle Le DœuffMichèle Le Dœuff is a French feminist philosopher and playwright. One of the most important contemporary feminist philosophers, Le Dœuff's work is highly critical of the philosophical tradition and its treatment of women. Le Dœuff’s ideas are driven by her intense philosophical and literary...
(born 1948) - LeontionLeontionLeontion was a Greek Epicurean philosopher.She was a pupil of Epicurus and his philosophy. She was the companion of Metrodorus of Lampsacus. The information we have about her is scant. She was said to have been a hetaera - a courtesan or prostitute. This might be misogynistic or anti-Epicurean...
(4th century BC) - Hilde LindemannHilde LindemannHilde Lindemann is a philosophy professor and well known bioethicist currently teaching at Michigan State University. Lindemann earned her M.A. at the University of Georgia in theatre history and dramatic literature before going on to earn a Ph.D. in philosophy at Fordham University in 2000...
- Rosa LuxemburgRosa LuxemburgRosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen...
(1871–1919) - Catherine MacaulayCatherine MacaulayCatharine Macaulay was an English historian.-Early life: 1731 – 1763:...
(1731–1791) - Penelope MaddyPenelope MaddyPenelope Maddy is a UCI Distinguished Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science and of Mathematics at the University of California, Irvine. She is well known for her influential work in the philosophy of mathematics, where she has worked on realism and naturalism.Maddy received her Ph.D. from...
- Ruth Barcan MarcusRuth Barcan MarcusRuth Barcan Marcus is the American philosopher and logician after whom the Barcan formula is named. She is a pioneering figure in the quantification of modal logic and the theory of direct reference...
(born 1921) - Harriet MartineauHarriet MartineauHarriet Martineau was an English social theorist and Whig writer, often cited as the first female sociologist....
(1802–1876) - Damaris Cudworth MashamDamaris Cudworth MashamDamaris Cudworth Masham was an English philosopher. She was the daughter of Cambridge Platonist philosopher Ralph Cudworth and a friend of John Locke, an English philosopher of what later came to be termed as the empiricist school...
(1659–1708) - Mechthild of MagdeburgMechthild of MagdeburgMechthild of Magdeburg , a Beguine, was a medieval mystic, whose book Das fließende Licht der Gottheit described her visions of God....
(1210–1285) - Mary MidgleyMary MidgleyMary Midgley, née Scrutton , is an English moral philosopher. She was a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Newcastle University and is known for her work on science, ethics and animal rights. She wrote her first book, Beast And Man: The Roots of Human Nature , when she was in her fifties...
(born 1919) - MelissaMelissa (philosopher)Melissa was a Pythagorean philosopher and mathematician from the 6th century. Her name derives from the Greek word melli meaning honey.Little is known about her life and works, although remaining letters point to a neo-Pythagorean thought....
- Ruth MillikanRuth MillikanRuth Garrett Millikan is a well-known American philosopher of biology, psychology, and language. She was awarded the Jean Nicod Prize and gave the Jean Nicod Lectures in Paris in 2002....
(born 1933) - Iris MurdochIris MurdochDame Iris Murdoch DBE was an Irish-born British author and philosopher, best known for her novels about political and social questions of good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious...
(1919–1999) - Ioanna KucuradiIoanna KucuradiIoanna Kuçuradi is a Turkish philosopher of Greek descendant. She is currently the president of Philosophical Society Of Turkey and a full time academic of Maltepe University.-Biography:...
(born 1936) - Nancey MurphyNancey MurphyNancey Murphy is Professor of Christian Philosophy at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA. She received the B.A. from Creighton University in 1973, the Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley in 1980, and the Th.D...
(born 1951) - Judith Sargent MurrayJudith Sargent MurrayJudith Sargent Murray was an early American advocate for women's rights, an essayist, playwright, poet, and letter writer. She was one of the first American proponents of the idea of the equality of the sexes—that women, like men, had the capability of intellectual accomplishment and should be...
(1751–1820) - Nel NoddingsNel NoddingsNel Noddings is an American feminist, educationalist, and philosopher best known for her work in philosophy of education, educational theory, and ethics of care.-Biography:...
- Martha NussbaumMartha NussbaumMartha Nussbaum , is an American philosopher with a particular interest in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, political philosophy and ethics....
(born 1947) - Onora O'Neill (born 1941)
- Ayn RandAyn RandAyn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
(January 20, 1905 – March 6, 1982) - Janet Radcliffe RichardsJanet Radcliffe RichardsJanet Radcliffe Richards is a British philosopher who has written about feminism and bioethics.She was Lecturer in Philosophy at the Open University 1979-1999, and Director of the Centre for Bioethics and Philosophy of Medicine at University College London until 2007...
(born 1944) - Rosemary Radford RuetherRosemary Radford RuetherRosemary Radford Ruether is an American feminist scholar and theologian.-Biography:Ruether was born in 1936 in Georgetown, Texas, to a Roman Catholic mother and Episcopal father. She has reportedly described her upbringing as free-thinking and humanistic as opposed to oppressive...
(born 1936) - Renata SaleclRenata SaleclRenata Salecl is a Slovenian philosopher, sociologist and legal theorist. She is a senior researcher at the Institute of Criminology, Faculty of Law at the University of Ljubljana...
(born 1962) - Anna Maria van SchurmanAnna Maria van SchurmanAnna Maria van Schurman was a German-Dutch painter, engraver, poet and scholar. She was a highly educated woman by seventeenth century standards...
(1607–1678) - Lady Mary Shepherd (1777–1847)
- Sor JuanaSor JuanaSor Juana Inés de la Cruz , fully Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez de Santillana, was a self-taught scholar and poet of the Baroque school, and nun of New Spain...
(1648–1695) - Anne Louise Germaine de StaëlAnne Louise Germaine de StaëlAnne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein , commonly known as Madame de Staël, was a French-speaking Swiss author living in Paris and abroad. She influenced literary tastes in Europe at the turn of the 19th century.- Childhood :...
(1766–1817) - L. Susan Stebbing (1885–1943)
- Edith SteinEdith SteinSaint Teresia Benedicta of the Cross, sometimes also known as Saint Edith Stein , was a German Roman Catholic philosopher and nun, regarded as a martyr and saint of the Roman Catholic Church...
(1891–1942) - Gabrielle SuchonGabrielle SuchonGabrielle Suchon was a French moral philosopher and Catholic feminist.-External links:* - Further reading :* Traité de la morale et de la politique , Gabrielle Suchon ....
(1631–1703) - Lisa H. SchwartzmanLisa H. SchwartzmanLisa H. Schwartzman is a philosophy professor and well known feminist and social/political philosopher currently teaching at Michigan State University. Schwartzman earned her Ph.D...
- Harriet Taylor MillHarriet Taylor MillHarriet Taylor Mill was a philosopher and women's rights advocate. Her second husband was John Stuart Mill, one of the pre-eminent thinkers of the 19th century...
(1807–1858) - Teresa of AvilaTeresa of ÁvilaSaint Teresa of Ávila, also called Saint Teresa of Jesus, baptized as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada, was a prominent Spanish mystic, Roman Catholic saint, Carmelite nun, and writer of the Counter Reformation, and theologian of contemplative life through mental prayer...
(1515–1582) - ThemistocleaThemistocleaThemistoclea was a priestess, philosopher and mathematician at Delphi.. According to surviving sources she was Pythagoras’ teacher, although she may also have been his sister...
(fl.FloruitFloruit , abbreviated fl. , is a Latin verb meaning "flourished", denoting the period of time during which something was active...
600 BCE. Teacher of Pythagoras - Judith Jarvis ThomsonJudith Jarvis ThomsonJudith Jarvis Thomson is an American moral philosopher and metaphysician, best known for her use of thought experiments to make philosophical points.- Career :...
(born 1929) - Baroness Mary Warnock (born 1924)
- Simone WeilSimone WeilSimone Weil , was a French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist.-Biography:Weil was born in Paris to Alsatian agnostic Jewish parents who fled the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany. She grew up in comfortable circumstances, and her father was a doctor. Her only sibling was...
(1909–1943) - Victoria Lady Welby (1837–1912)
- Mary WollstonecraftMary WollstonecraftMary Wollstonecraft was an eighteenth-century British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book...
(1759–1797) - Frances WrightFrances WrightFrances Wright also widely known as Fanny Wright, was a Scottish-born lecturer, writer, freethinker, feminist, abolitionist, and social reformer, who became a U. S. citizen in 1825...
(1795–1852) - Dorothy Maud WrinchDorothy Maud WrinchDorothy Maud Wrinch was a mathematician and biochemical theorist best known for her attempt to deduce protein structure using mathematical principles....
(1894–1976) - Alenka ZupančičAlenka ZupancicAlenka Zupančič is a Slovenian philosopher whose work focuses on psychoanalysis and continental philosophy.Born in Ljubljana, Zupančič graduated at the University of Ljubljana in 1990. She is currently a full-time researcher at the Institute of Philosophy of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and...
(born 1966)