Women and Philosophy in Eighteenth-Century Germany

Women and Philosophy in Eighteenth-Century Germany showcases the vibrant and diverse contributions on the part of women in eighteenth-century Germany and explores their under-appreciated influence upon philosophical debate in Germany in this period. Among the women profiled in this volume are Sophie of Hanover, Dorothea Christiane Erxleben, Johanna Charlotte Unzer, Wilhelmina of Bayreuth, Amalia Holst, Henriette Herz, Elise Reimarus, and Maria von Herbert. Their contributions span the range of philosophical topics in metaphysics, logic, and aesthetics, to moral and political philosophy, and pertain to the main philosophical movements in the period. They engage controversial issues of the day, such as atheism and materialism, but also women's struggle for access to education and for recognition of their civic entitlements, and they display a range of strategies for intellectual engagement in doing so. This collection vigorously contests the presumption that the history of German philosophy in the eighteenth century can be told without attending to the important roles that women played in the signature debates of the period.

Corey W. Dyck, Western University

Corey W. Dyck is Professor of Philosophy and Faculty Scholar for Arts and Humanities at Western University. He is the author of Kant and Rational Psychology (Oxford University Press, 2014) and is the translator and editor of the collection Early Modern German Philosophy: 1690-1750 (Oxford University Press, 2019). He has held visiting positions at Oxford University, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, and at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, where he was also recently an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow.

List of Contributors
Introduction, Corey W. Dyck
Part I. Women and the Leibnizian-Wolffian Philosophy
1. Sophie of Hanover on the Soul-Body Relationship, Christian Leduc
2. A Modern Diotima: Johanna Charlotte Unzer on Wolffianism and Aesthetics, Stefanie Buchenau
Part II. The Question of Education
3. On Prejudice and the Limits to Learnedness: Dorothea Christiane Erxleben and the Querelle des Femmes, Corey W. Dyck
4. A Mere Skeleton of the Sciences? Amalia Holst's Critique of Basedow and Campe, Robert B. Louden
Part III. Women and the Great Debates
5. Wilhelmine of Bayreuth and the German Enlightenment, Paola Rumore
6. Elise Reimarus: Reason, Religion, and Enlightenment, Reed Winegar
Part IV. Kant and the Kantian Legacy
7. Solace or Counsel for Death: Kant and Maria von Herbert, Bernhard Ritter
8. Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel on the Status of Women in the State, Charlotte Sabourin
Part V. Women on Self-Formation
9. Dorothea Schlegel and the Challenges of Female Authorship and Identity, Brigitte Sassen
10. The Role of Writing and Sociability in the Establishment of a Persona: Henriette Herz, Rahel Levin Varnhagen, and Bettina von Arnim, Anne Pollok
Part VI. Echoes
11. Is She not an Unusual Woman? Say More: Germaine de Sta?l and Lydia Maria Child on Progress, Art, and Abolition, Lydia L. Moland
Bibliography