Dr. Cynthia Freeland/University of Houston
Feminist Philosophy Fall 2012
Schedule for Units One and Two
M Aug 27 Introduction
Feminist Philosophy; women and the canon; statistics on
women in philosophy (handout)
Handout: Selections from Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Rousseau,
Schopenhauer, Nietzsche
W Aug 29 Feminism and the
Canon
Charlotte Witt "How Feminism
Is Re-writing the Philosophical Canon", http://www.uh.edu/~cfreelan/SWIP/Witt.html
M Sept 3 No Class/Labor Day
W Sept 5 Women philosophers
in history 1: Plato and Diotima
Discussion Paper #1 Due
Luce Irigaray, “Sorceror Love” (on Diotima in
Plato’s Symposium) (Handout)
Read Plato's Symposium
on-line (Hint: Do a search for the word
"Diotima" and begin reading at that
section, and continue reading on through the end of Socrates' speech.)
M Sept 10 Women philosophers
in history 2: Descartes and Princess Elizabeth
Excerpts from Andrea Nye, The Princess and the
Philosopher: Letters of Elisabeth of the Palatine to Rene Descartes (Lanham,
MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999), Preface,
Prologue, and Chapter 15, Master of Passion.
Read more about Princess Elizabeth here and here (on-line
links). This site includes excellent links to letters between Elizabeth and
Descartes, some illustrations of Elizabeth, etc.
W Sept 12 The rise of
feminist philosophy (*Graduate student presentations)
Discussion
Paper #2 Due
Susan Brison, Aftermath:
Violence and the Remaking of a Self, Chapters One and Two, pp. 1-35
(“Surviving Sexual Violence,” and “The Personal as Philosophical”)
*Sandra Bartky, “A Life Sentence
in Bohemia,” from Singing in the Fire: Stories of Women in Philosophy,
ed. Linda Martin Alcoff
*Claudia Card, “Finding My Voice,” from Singing in the
Fire
*Alison Jagger, “Freethinking?”
from Singing in the Fire
M Sept 17
Theory and Method (*Graduate student presentations)
Jane Flax, “Women Do Theory,” Quest, 5 (Summer 1979), 20-26,
reprinted in Jaggar and Rothenberg, Feminist
Frameworks, 3rd ed
(Handout)
Luce Irigaray, from “Questions,”
in This Sex Which Is Not One, pp. 148-169
*bell hooks, “Theory as Liberatory
Practice,” from Teaching to Transgress ( New
York Routledge), 1994, reprinted in Kolmar and Bartkowski, Feminist Theory ( Mountain View:
Mayfield, 2000), 36-41
*Catharine MacKinnon, “Consciousness Raising,” from Toward
a Feminist Theory of the State,” pp. 83-105
*Maria Lugones and Elizabeth Spelman, “Have We Got a Theory for You! Feminist Theory,
Cultural Imperialism, and the Demand for ‘The Woman’s Voice,” in Feminism
& Philosophy, ed. Nancy Tuana and Rosemarie
Tong, pp. 494-507; also in Feminist Theory, pp. 17-27.
W Sept 19
Begin Unit Two Liberal Feminism and Equality Reading: Tong Chapter One “Liberal Feminism” pp. 10-44 Focus on historical antecedents: Wollstonecraft, Taylor and
Mill Supplemental Materials Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor (1807-1858) Harriet Taylor,
informational page with picture and biography. Also has a great picture of
Taylor and Mill together. M Sept 24 Tong
Chapter One (cont’d.) (*Graduate
student presentations) First Wave Feminism in the U.S.; Angela Davis’ critique
(outline on Blackboard) Second Wave Feminism in the U.S.: Betty Friedan and NOW
(in-class) Problems of inclusion/exclusion /Discussion Paper #3 Due *Uma Narayan,
“What’s a Brown Girl Like You Doing in the Ivory
Tower? Or, How I Became a Feminist Philosopher,” from Singing in the Rain (Scan to be on Blackboard) W Sept 26 Tong, Critiques of Liberal Feminism (*Graduate student presentations) The “Third Wave” *Susan Muaddi Darraj,
“It’s Not an Oxymoron: The Search for an Arab Feminism,” from Colonize This!,
pp. 295-311 (Scan to be on Blackboard) *Adriana López, “In Praise of
Difficult Chicas: Feminism and Femininity,” in Colonize
This!, pp.
119-32 M Oct
1 Multicultural/Global Feminism Tong Chapter Seven, pp. 212-245 Feminist
Critique Due More Information on Feminist Critique (on-line) W Oct 3 Multicultural
Feminism (cont’d.) Discussion Paper #5 Due Take-Home
Topics Distributed on Units I and II M Oct 8 Begin Unit Three: Radical Feminism and
Revolution Take-Home
#1 Due (on Units I and II)
Mary Wollsttonecraft, includes picture and timeline
1792 A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN
by MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT, 1792 (full text available electronically, downloadable
by chapter)
Published The Enfranchisement of
Women in 1849, mostly written by Taylor, appeared under Mill's name. The
Subjection of Women appeared after Taylor's death; also worked on by both
and published under Mill's name.
Harriet Taylor's Quotations, a selection on a page at a women's history site
Supplemental Materials: Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass (in-class)