Journal in PHILOSOPHY
Editors-in-Chief: Ruth Edith Hagengruber, Karen A.H. Green, "Journal of the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists", (Brill)

Women have long shaped philosophical thought, yet their contributions have often been overlooked or excluded from the academic canon. Prof. Ruth Edith Hagengruber, newly elected President of the German Society of Philosophy (the first woman in its history), has dedicated her career to changing that. In this interview, she discusses the challenges women philosophers face, the importance of expanding the philosophical canon, and the role of feminist thought today. In addition to her work on the Journal of the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, she has published extensively.

1. Your journal, the Journal of the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, is dedicated to restoring the intellectual heritage of women philosophers. What inspired you to found the journal, and what gaps in the academic landscape did you seek to address?

First of all, the fact that this journal is the first of its kind to present the significant and long history of women philosophers must be discussed. In 1745, the philosopher-historian Brucker confirmed in his writings that there have been outstanding women philosophers in all times and in all nations, and he did so because he had at least 200 years of intensive research into the history of women philosophers at his disposal. The search for lost women philosophers in the early modern period can begin with Christine de Pizan around 1400. Gilles Ménage's collection from 1690 on women philosophers from Antiquity confirms this search, which was based on a wide range of research. In this period, women reconstructed their philosophical heritage, even Du Châtelet is placed in the line of Diotima and Aspasia, Elizabeth of Bohemia and Christina of Sweden, not to mention the important female philosophers and scientists of their time, such as Laura Bassi, Maria Agnesi, and Luise Gottsched.                                          

If this history is being rediscovered today, it is first of all a sign of the destruction of memory that has been going on since the end of the 18th century, and which is now being resumed thanks to the research of Mary Ellen Waithe and many others.                                                                                                                                                       

Thanks to globalization in intellectual history, we now also have a better understanding than Brucker, who speaks in very general terms of all the peoples in which these women have achieved significant things, that there are great traditions of women thinkers around the globe. It is wonderful that we have already been able to contribute to the rediscovery of this history for India and South-East Europe and to collect the insights in our journal. We are currently gathering contributions from women philosophers from Latin America. The whole world of research appears in a different light when we include the global history of women philosophers. The JHWP gives us this opportunity.

2.    Women philosophers have historically struggled to be integrated into the philosophical canon. What were some of the key barriers they faced, and how do these challenges still resonate today?

The present moment is characterized by a concomitant backlash against the principles of scientific freedom and, by extension, against the intellectual emancipation of women. This period, which has followed a prolonged and productive phase of liberal politics marked by the dissolution of borders and the transcendence of intellectual barriers – including continental and racist boundaries – is now witnessing this backlash. This phenomenon has recurred throughout history.                                                     

A prime example of this phenomenon is the Jacobins' initial actions upon assuming power, which included the closure of women's clubs and the execution of prominent figures such as Olympe de Gouges, a proponent of equality, freedom, and abolitionism, by Robespierre in 1793.                                                                               

Historically, those who advocate violence, or, more candidly, feel unable to contend with intellectual dominance, have sought to destroy intelligence through force. The consequences for people, life and culture are considerable. This irrationalism cannot be explained rationally, as it is not possible to disprove nonsense. However, it is also a fact that resisting such glorifications of violence is a great challenge for humanity. At the moment we are witnessing firsthand and in the most diverse parts of the world how attractive this kind of violence-oriented action is for many people.

3. The most recent special issue of the journal focused on Indian women philosophers and thinkers. What insights did this issue bring to light, and why is it important to explore feminist thought beyond the Western tradition?                                                                                                                                                           

I am sure it would be different if we had all learned about phenomenology from Edith Stein and Conrad-Martius instead of Husserl and Heidegger, and if we had studied the writings of Hardevi of Lahore, Émilie du Châtelet, Constance Jones and Nisia Floresta; different perspectives would frame your philosophical mind. And we want to be asked: Are you doing this to diversify philosophy or to improve it? my answer is: We are improving philosophy.                                                                                                             

By means of this Journal in the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, we are reconstructing the history of women's philosophical thought, with the help of our colleagues from India and Latin America, from Ukraine, and the Philippines.                                                                                                                                                  

Although largely unknown, the history of women philosophers is considered a 'toothless tiger', an ineffectual force for the improvement of philosophical thought. I believe that it allows us to take a new look at what we call philosophical and at the history of philosophy, which offers a very different perspective on the world as it is and as it could be, of course, for the best of our world.                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Beyond historical recovery, this new history of philosophy plays a crucial role in shaping contemporary debates in the humanities, the sciences, and even areas like artificial intelligence. It is a critical means to uncover the deficiencies of scientific investigation which is still only half of what it could be and what it could deliver.                                    

4.    Your research has also touched on feminist perspectives in economics and technology. How do these fields intersect with your work on the history of women philosophers?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

It may surprise people when I say that AI is also an archival reconstruction, which, as we know from history, always operates from a particular point of view. The ontologies on which it is based are ontologies, i.e. the orders of the last 50 or 100 years and the future that the machine is able to predict are therefore extrapolations from these empirical data, arranged according to the power structures that shaped the knowledge structures of the time.                                                                                                     

As is now common practice in medicine, male mice were studied because they are less complicated to study. It is wrong to think that this means that all mice have been studied. Of course, a lot of data can be produced in this way, and people are excited that they can already get so much knowledge out of the machine. In the end, the knowledge delivered by Chat GPT is quite simple, and more sophisticated AIs, such as Google's analytics and ontology, can only shake their heads. So what is delivered is okay; people are dazzled and want to motivate this AI like a small child by allowing it to do everything that humans are otherwise forbidden to do: steal, copy, lie, insult. There are - see my first point above - people and people in power who fall for this bluff and find it very impressive. If we were to look at the history of women philosophers - and we are extending the analogy to women mice - we would find a much more complex history, but one that could also claim a higher and more precise level of knowledge. Consequently, this suggests that a more reliable determination of the past and a more comprehensive description of the available data would also allow the machine to make a better prediction for the future, thus producing a higher degree of reliability and, consequently, a more stable outlook for what is to come. It should be noted that there are currently a significant number of people who advocate for the collapse of as much as possible. They may perceive this to be a sign of their strength, but it is in fact indicative of a lack of knowledge. It is difficult to fathom why anyone would construct a building that is inherently doomed to failure.                                                                                   

A similar observation can be made about the history of economic philosophy, which demonstrates a lack of awareness regarding the numerous insights available, suggesting ideas of a shared world and a future for all people, irrespective of gender and race. This is exemplified by Plato's contributions, yet many female philosophers throughout history, such as Olympe de Gouges, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and numerous others, have been overlooked or disregarded. Economics, as a tool of calculation, considers itself self-sufficient; however, in reality, it merely perpetuates a specific mode of thinking that it has established. This has resulted in the abstraction of models to such an extent that they have become divorced from reality. For a period exceeding two decades, I have been engaged in the instruction of this subject, which encompasses numerous topics related to the significance of gender for economics. Nevertheless, the prevailing perspective within the discipline continues to subscribe to the notion that economic science is predominantly shaped by male market participants. This state of affairs, I contend, is a significant contributing factor to the pervasive ignorance and mismanagement that is so prevalent in contemporary society. It is my firm belief that this contrived state of affairs is a major impediment to the pursuit of truth. I am pleased to announce that we are in the final stages of preparing a volume on this subject, with the call for papers to be published in the near future.

5.    If you could recommend just one work by a woman philosopher that everyone should read, which would it be and why?                                                               

I discovered the philosophy of Émilie Du Châtelet (1706-1749) during my student years, and a significant portion of my academic studies have been dedicated to this philosopher. She is a sensationally clear thinker, whose influence was enormous and remains relevant to crucial methods of thought of the era. For example, her influence can be seen in the methodology of hypothesis formation, as well as in transcendental aesthetics and the so-called Copernican turn, an expression that she coined. It would be remiss not to recommend Du Châtelet's work Les Institutions physiques which appeared in 1740 and in expanded form in 1742 and was promptly published in German and Italian.

For more insights from Prof. Ruth Edith Hagengruber, explore additional content from De Gruyter Brill:

• Listen to the German podcast episode "Gab es eigentlich Frauen in der Philosophie?" on WAGNIS WISSEN Podcast.
• Discover the Women Philosophers Heritage Collection , where she serves as Editor-in-Chief.