This presentation explores the contributions of nineteenth-century women to social and political thought. Through a novel reading of works by Karoline von Günderrode and Bettina Brentano von Arnim, it hones in on the philosophical arc from early romanticism to late-century socialism and beyond. The aim is to present new aspects of romanticism and idealism, but also to indicate how this reinterpretation poses a challenge for modern political philosophy. In this way, the presentation seeks to demonstrate how we, in paying attention to the works of important women philosophers, can uncover new historical lines and gain new systematic tools for addressing key issues in contemporary philosophical thought, including issues relating to ecology, social justice, and the relationship between philosophy and art.
Kristin Gjesdal is professor of philosophy at Temple University. Her scholarship covers modern European philosophy. She the co-editor of the recent Women Philosophers in the Long Nineteenth Century: The German Tradition and the forthcoming Oxford Handbook to Nineteenth-Century Women Philosophers in the German Tradition. She is the editor and co-editor of six further volumes in her areas of research. Her monographs include Gadamer and the Legacy of German Idealism (CUP 2009), Herder’s Hermeneutics (CUP 2017/2019), and The Drama of History: Ibsen, Hegel, Nietzsche (OUP 2021). She is currently working on a study of nineteenth-century women philosophers, preliminary entitled “Unruly Women,” as well as two monographs dedicated to Germaine de Staël: a short overview of Staël’s philosophy (under contract with CUP) and a more focused study of her theory of selfhood (under contract with OUP).