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The philosophy of individuality, or, The one and the many
01 Jan 1893-
About: The article was published on 1893-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 3 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Western philosophy & Philosophy of sport.
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09 Nov 1995
TL;DR: In this article, Theriot turns to social and medical history, developmental psychology, and feminist theory to explain the fundamental shift in women's concepts of femininity and gender identity during the course of the century.
Abstract: The feminine script of early nineteenth century centered on women's role as patient, long-suffering mothers. By mid-century, however, their daughters faced a world very different in social and economic options and in the physical experiences surrounding their bodies. In this groundbreaking study, Nancy Theriot turns to social and medical history, developmental psychology, and feminist theory to explain the fundamental shift in women's concepts of femininity and gender identity during the course of the century -- from an ideal suffering womanhood to emphasis on female control of physical self. Theriot's first chapter proposes a methodological shift that expands the interdisciplinary horizons of women's history. She argues that social psychological theories, recent work in literary criticism, and new philosophical work on subjectivities can provide helpful lenses for viewing mothers and children and for connecting socioeconomic change and ideological change. She recommends that women's historians take bolder steps to historicize the female body by making use of the theoretical insights of feminist philosophers, literary critics, and anthropologists. Within this methodological perspective, Theriot reads medical texts and woman- authored advice literature and autobiographies. She relates the early nineteenth-century notion of "true womanhood" to the socioeconomic and somatic realities of middle-class women's lives, particularly to their experience of the new male obstetrics. The generation of women born early in the century, in a close mother/daughter world, taught theirdaughters the feminine script by word and action. Their daughters, however, the first generation to benefit greatly from professional medicine, had less reason than their mothers to associate womanhood with pain and suffering. The new concept of femininity they created incorporated maternal teaching but altered it to make meaningful their own very different experience. This provocative study applies interdisciplinary methodology to new and long-standing questions in women's history and invites women's historians to explore alternative explanatory frameworks.
102 citations
TL;DR: Brown Blackwell's work, especially her scientific writings, are prescient of contemporary, standpoint theory critiques of Enlightenment ways of knowing as discussed by the authors, and her ongoing struggle for an authority with which to speak led her to confront biblical teachings that forbade women's ministry and later led to challenge the use of evolutionary theory to deny equality to women.
Abstract: Antoinette Brown Blackwell's work, especially her scientific writings, are prescient of contemporary, standpoint theory critiques of Enlightenment ways of knowing. Her ongoing struggle for an authority with which to speak led her to confront biblical teachings that forbade women's ministry and later led her to challenge the use of evolutionary theory to deny equality to women. In both cases, she attempted to meld the dominant discourse to her own uses, gaining the authority she needed to argue for women's equality. In her biblical arguments, she submitted Pauline texts to historical analysis by explicitly limiting their universal authority. Similarly, she critiqued the male bias evident in evolutionary science, undercutting its supposed objectivity. In so doing, though, Brown Blackwell undermined the universal basis of authority that she claimed for herself and encoded into her work conflicts about the basis of authority and women's equality.
5 citations
01 Jan 1991
TL;DR: Antoinette Louisa Brown Blackwell (1825-1921) was an American philosopher of the late nineteenth century; she was also the first woman minister to be ordained in America and preach before the Civil War, a suffragist, poet, and novelist as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Antoinette Louisa Brown Blackwell (1825–1921) was an American philosopher of the late nineteenth century; she was also the first woman minister to be ordained in America and preach before the Civil War, a suffragist, poet, and novelist Blackwell’s philosophy comprises six books The most extensive, The Philosophy of Individuality, presented an elaborate cosmology of mind and matter as dual aspects of Nature Also of interest are her works The Physical Basis of Immortality, which parallels the indestructibility of selfhood with the indestructibility of matter, and The Sexes Throughout Nature, her critique of sexism in theories of evolution In her philosophy, Black-well brought together strands of evolution with a natural philosophy shaped by Newtonian physics and inspired by the Christian faith Besides being deeply engaged in writing philosophy, her life was also that of a preacher, a public speaker active in the suffrage, temperance, and abolition movements Three moments frame Blackwell’s public life First, her fight for ordination, which began in childhood, peaked at Oberlin, and achieved success in a small New York Congregationalist parish
4 citations