Women Philosophers Missing from the Canon: A Recovery Project

The philosophical canon systematically excludes women, a silence that is both obvious and embarrassing. Karen J. Warren, a pioneer of the Recovery Project, edited "An Unconventional History of Philosophy" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009), pairing canonical male philosophers with forgotten female thinkers: Plato with Diotima, Hobbes with Catharine Macaulay (1731-91), Kant with Anna Maria van Schurman (1607-78). The project sparked significant academic debate in the Anglophone world, leading Pennsylvania State University Press to launch the series "Re-Reading the Canon" edited by Nancy Tuana. Italian women philosophers of the modern era, such as Arcangela Tarabotti, Moderata Fonte, and Lucrezia Marinella, also made substantial contributions. Marinella's 1600 treatise "La Nobiltà, et l'eccellenza delle donne" attacked Aristotle's notion of natural female inferiority. Sandra Plastina's "Filosofe della modernità" (Carocci, 2011) highlights their courage and speculative rigor. At a conference, Warren distributed a list of over eighty female philosophers; a senior philosophy professor stood up and simply said "Thank you." The article, published in Artribune Magazine #42, is by Marco Senaldi, a philosopher, curator, and contemporary art theorist who has taught at various institutions including the University of Milan Bicocca, IULM Milan, and the Brera Academy.