Convenor: Gabriele Gutzmann

The aim of this workshop is to review the history of IAPh: what did it achieve, and how can we tackle the remaining obstacles women philosophers still face?

Convenor: Ruth Hagengruber

At IAPh 2020, we want to increase the digital presence of women philosophers by encouraging the development of projects which pursue the same aim. This workshop will take place over the whole duration of IAPh 2020 as a special event of our project “Defining the future, rethinking the past”.

This workshop is included in the Technology Session!

Convenors: Tuija Pulkkinen, Susanne Lettow

In this workshop we want to explore the various interrelations between German Idealism and feminist philosophy by dwelling on key concepts like equality, autonomy, the subject, nature, and consciousness, as well as, e.g. the dialectics of master and slave. In addition, gender and sexuality were central issues of German Idealists, and many of them reflected intensively on topics such as love, marriage, the family, and the political status of women. How and to what extent can their ideas be made fecund for today’s gender issues?

INCLUDED INTO THE HISTORY 3) SESSION!

Convenors: Luka Boršić, Ivana Skuhala Karasman

In this workshop we will discuss women philosophers and feminists from the south-eastern part of Europe i.e. from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia. This European region boasts an extraordinary history as it was subject to various political forces, which left their mark on this region’s intellectual history and culture. This had tremendous effects not only on the general position of women in society, but also on the choice of philosophical activities of those women. We will explore the roots and backgrounds of their philosophical views, as well as some of their main philosophical positions.

Convenor: Evangelia Aikaterini Glantzi.

In this workshop, we are going to discuss the groundbreaking work of Prof. Dr. em. Diana Tietjens Meyers on philosophy of action and her significant contribution to the feminist discussion on personal autonomy. The workshop will be structured as follows: presentation of three formal papers given by Prof. Dr.Monika Betzler (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München), Associate Prof. Dr. Asha Bhandary (University of Iowa) and Dr. Evangelia Aikaterini Glantzi, followed by Prof. Meyers’ response and open discussion.

Prof. Meyers would like this session to be dedicated to the memory of her husband, Lewis (Larry) Meyers, who supported her work over fifty years. He died on 28 December 2020.

Convenor: Marion Mangelsdorf (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg)

In Platons Symposium wird die Muße, die das Gespräch ermöglicht und rahmt, als basal vorgestellt. Dabei entwickelt Sokrates in der Wiedergabe eines fiktiven Gesprächs mit der Seherin Diotima eine Vorstellung des Eros als Triebkraft, die hinter allem Verlangen nach dem Schönen, Guten und Wahren stünde. Damit begreift Sokrates Eros als Basis eines unstillbaren Verlangens nach Erkenntnis und wissenschaftlichen Forschens.

Der Rede Diotimas ebenso wie einer durch Muße ermöglichten Dialogkultur spürt der Workshop als (selbst-)kritische Inspirationsquelle für Fragen am digitalisierten Campus der zeitgenössischen Alma Mater nach: In Form von Webdokumentationen und künstlerisch mediengestalterischer Gesprächsformate möchte ich den Campus als Versammlungsort wiederbeleben (vgl. https://genderingmint.pageflow.io/ein-gastmahl).

Convenors: Zeineb Ben Saïd-Cherni, Ana Rodrigues (Paderborn University)

So far, the perception of Arabic-speaking philosophy in Europe has been limited to classical male authors such as al-Fārābī, Ibn Sīnā and Ibn Rušd. Nevertheless, recent research such as the work of Tamara Albertini challenges this predominant perception of philosophy in the Islamic world. There have been important contributions by women such as Rābiʿa al-ʿAdawiyya al-Qaysiyya of Basra or ‘A’Ishah Al-Ba’uniyyah of Damascus. This workshop aims at contributing to an increased visibility of female philosophers in the Arab World in history and today. We invite contributions on any epoque and any topic.

The workshop is cancelled, but we refer to the thematically related keynote of Elizabeth S. Kassab.

Convenors: Ronny Miron (Bar-Ilan University) and Mette Lebech (Maynooth University)

In this workshop we shall discuss women philosophers who were part of the phenomenological movement of the 20^th century. Our main focus will be on the phenomenologists Hedwig Conrad-Martius and Edith Stein. While Hedwig Conrad-Martius was a key figure in the Munich and Göttingen phenomenological circles, the slightly younger Edith Stein combined Conrad-Martius’ philosophy with Husserl’s constitutional, transcendental phenomenology and later developed it as Christian philosophy. We shall concentrate on the two phenomenologists’ understanding of ‘I’, ‘depth’, ‘causality’ and ‘reality’, all relevant in particular for the understanding of the human I. Both women were important contributors to the development of phenomenology and their contributions have significant potential for aiding contemporary phenomenology in both its scientific and sapiential aspirations.

Convenors: Björn Freter (Knoxville, Tennessee, USA), Ana Rodrigues (Paderborn University, Germany)

The history of Western philosophy is rich with testimonies to self-aggrandizement on the part of – supposedly – superior people setting themselves apart from – supposedly – inferior ›others‹. We find this pattern again and again, appearing for example in the writings of Plato, Augustine, Thomas, Hegel, Heidegger and many more.

Astonishingly, this same history of philosophy is much less rich when it comes to critical examinations of this superiorism, as we wish to call it. Discussions on the handling of this superioristic legacy are rare, and in many cases seem to be deliberately avoided.

Since there is no widespread critical examination thereof, we cannot be certain whether or not the superiorism of philosophical traditions continues to be active – inadvertently – in our current thought. For example, would Immanuel Kant have been able to claim that humanity attains its highest degree of perfection in the “white race” without this assumption exercising an influence on his suppositions regarding what human beings can know, what they should do, what they may hope for and what they essentially are?

If we assume for the moment that these cannot be separated, would the three critiques then still be critiques of the reason and judgment of people in general, or rather critiques of the reason and judgment only of certain people? But if the latter is indeed the case, could this not also mean that any thinking which is aligned with Kantian philosophy risks inadvertently perpetuating Kantian superiorism as well? Moreover: if the Enlightenment project in its entirety is limited in this way, can its demands for the equality of all people, for tolerance and for freedom of the individual be understood without contradiction?

In dealing with our philosophical history, we have become accustomed not only to enduring this inconsistency, but also to justifying it. Western philosophy, usually so merciless towards contradictions, suddenly seems to be incredibly lenient when it comes to this issue.

In our workshop we want to address questions as:

Why this leniency, and what are the consequences? One consequence may be that despite resolutely distancing ourselves from superiorism, we have remained superiorists in our thinking and in our actions. Could this explain why Western philosophy still considers itself (at least for the most part) to be philosophy in its truest and most important form? Moreover: how does this understanding on the part of Western philosophy affect non-Western philosophy? What consequences does this have for both Western and non-Western philosophers?

Convenors: Emma G. Baizabel (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), Tzitzi Janik Rojas Torres (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)

The workshop is proposed as a space for critical reflection and horizontal collaboration to generate feminist and decolonial strategies, which confront the paradigms through which philosophical knowledge is reproduced, making it more of a communal practice than an encyclopedic knowledge. We invite specialist and non-specialists to come up together and problematize the dynamics of colonial and patriarchal power in which the promotion of philosophy is inserted, in order to jointly develop situated philosophical knowledge, which breaks the boundary between expert and lay thinking.