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

ISBN: 9780231138956

Columbia University Press January 2007

Paperback | 392 pages

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. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}