Hipparchia's Choice: An Essay Concerning Women, Philosophy, etc.

by Michèle Le Dœuff, Trista Selous (Translator)

"To be a philosopher and to be a feminist are one and the same thing. A feminist is a woman who does not allow anyone to think in her place."-from Hipparchia's Choice

A work of rare insight and irreverence, Hipparchia's Choice boldly recasts the history of philosophy from the pre-Socratics to the post-Derrideans as one of masculine texts and male problems. The position of women, therefore, is less the result of a hypothetical "femininity" and more the fault of exclusion by men. Nevertheless, women have been and continue to be drawn to "the exercise of thought." So how does a female philosopher become a conceptually adventurous woman? Focusing on the work of Sartre and Beauvoir (specifically, his sexism and her relation to it), Michèle Le Doeuff shows how women philosophers can reclaim a place for feminist concerns. Is The Second Sex a work of philosophy, and, if so, what can it teach us about the relation of philosophy to experience? Now with a new epilogue, Hipparchia's Choice points the way toward a discipline that is accountable to history, feminism, and society.

Genres: Philosophy, Feminism

392 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1991

About the author

Renowned French philosopher and playwright who teaches at the Ècole Normale Superieure in Paris. Her works, including The Philosophical Imaginary and The Sex of Knowing, challenge a philosophical tradition that privileges male rationality.