History of Women Philosophers and Scientists

Research Colloquium - Dr. Jil Muller: Holistic Philosophical Anthropology
2025-06-30 16:00 - 18:00 (Europe/Berlin) | Technologiepark 8, Technologiepark 8, Paderborn, 33098, Germany
Dr. Jil Muller, Deputy Director of The Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, will introduce us into her research on Holistic Philosophical Anthropology.
The talk is part of the regular research colloquium held at the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists. The research colloquium is organized by Prof. Dr. Ruth E. Hagengruber.
The talk will start at 4 pm.
Everybody is welcome to attend.
Room: TP8.1.46
Building Technologiepark 8
Adress: Technologiepark 8, 33098 Paderborn, Germany

Wissenschaft außer Kontrolle? Von Hühner-Dinos, OncoMäusen und rauchenden Affen – Wie weit darf Forschung gehen?
2025-06-18 19:00 - 21:00 | AKKA Paderborn
Kneipengeflüster – Triff Wissenschaft an der Theke
Talk by Felix Grewe: Wissenschaft außer Kontrolle? Von Hühner-Dinos, OncoMäusen und rauchenden Affen – Wie weit darf Forschung gehen?
Mittwoch, 18. Juni 2025, 19 Uhr
AKKA, Paderborn
Wissenschaft trifft Kneipenatmosphäre: Unter diesem Motto rufen die Universität Paderborn und die Servicestelle Antidiskriminierung (ADA) des Caritasverbands Paderborn e.V. eine neue Veranstaltungsreihe ins Leben. Künftig sollen Expert*innen eingeladen werden, um über aktuelle, spannende und manchmal auch brisante Themen in lockerer Runde zu diskutieren. Den Auftakt zur Reihe „Kneipengeflüster – Triff Wissenschaft an der Theke“ macht Felix Grewe vom Lehrstuhl für Praktische Philosophie der Universität Paderborn am Mittwoch, 18. Juni, mit dem Thema „Wissenschaft außer Kontrolle? Von Hühner-Dinos, OncoMäusen und rauchenden Affen – Wie weit darf Forschung gehen?“. Interessierte sind ab 19 Uhr herzlich willkommen in der Kneipe „AKKA“ (Giersstraße 31) in Paderborn. Der Eintritt ist frei, eine Anmeldung ist nicht erforderlich.
„Die Veranstaltungsreihe ist so konzipiert, dass jede*r vorbeikommen kann – mit oder ohne Vorwissen, Hauptsache mit Neugier“, sagt Laura Maring, Referentin für Diversity der Universität Paderborn. Bei der ersten Veranstaltung im Juni möchte Grewe mit den Gästen u. a. darüber sprechen, wie die moderne Forschung zwar immer wieder neue Möglichkeiten, aber auch neue Fragen mit sich bringt. Er wirft in einem kurzen Impulsvortrag einen kritischen Blick auf die Grenzen wissenschaftlicher Neugier und öffnet anschließend den Raum für Diskussion, Austausch und Kneipengespräche auf Augenhöhe.
Eine Fortsetzung der Reihe ist bereits geplant: Gemeinsam mit der Prodekanin für Nachhaltigkeit, Gleichstellung und Diversität der Fakultät für Kulturwissenschaften, Dr. Larissa Eikermann, und der Geschäftsführerin des Zentrums für Geschlechterstudien / Gender Studies, Dr. Claudia Mahs, plant Maring weitere Termine ab Oktober dieses Jahres.
Organisator*innen:
Laura Maring, Referentin Diversity der Universität Paderborn
Dr. Larissa Eickelmann, Prodekanin für Nachhaltigkeit, Gleichstellung und Diversität der Fakultät für Kulturwissenschaften der Universität Paderborn
Dr. Claudia Mahs, Zentrum für Geschlechterstudien der Universität Paderborn
Matthias Zimoch, Servicestelle Antidiskriminierung (ADA) des Caritas-Verband Paderborn e.V.
Quelle: https://www.uni-paderborn.de/veranstaltung/neue-veranstaltungsreihe-in-paderborn-kneipengefluester-triff-wissenschaft-an-der-theke

Workshop Women in the History of Medicine and Philosophy
2025-06-18 14:00 - 17:00 | Technologiepark 8, Technologiepark 8, Paderborn, 33098, Germany
Workshop on Women in the History of Medicine and Philosophy
June 18, 2025, 2pm – 5 pm (hybrid)

Preliminary Program:
14.00-14.10 Welcome Dr. Jil Muller
14.10- 14.30 Dr. Ivana Skuhala Karasman (Senior scientific fellow at IFZG Croatia) – Croatian Women Philosopher and Psychologist: Elza Kučera
14.50-15.10 Dr. Ilaria Ferrara (adjunct professor at the University of Salerno, Italy; former Post-doc at University of Ferrara) – The Logic of Exclusion: Prejudice and the Fallacy of Generalization in Dorothea Christiane Erxleben’s Rigorous Investigation.
15.30-15.45 Break
15.45-16.05 Vanessa Sabbatini (PhD Candidate at the Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy) – Medical women in the Marche region in the Contemporary Age: the case of Giulia Bonarelli and her “method of gentleness.”
16.25-16.45 Ivana Zečević (PhD Candidate at University of Groningnen, the Netherlands) – From Hospitals to Village Outreaches: Changing Ideas Around Motherhood and Childcare in Villa Maria and Mua Hospitals, 1900s-1980s.
Invited Discussants (Q&A for each paper will last 20 minutes): Dr. Fabrizio Bigotti (CSMBR, Pisa); Dr. Michele Vagnetti (Paderborn University); PD Dr. Friedrich Markewitz (Paderborn University) and Dr. Jil Muller (HWPS, Paderborn).

More information will be provided soon.
To participate please register via our registration platform: https://indico.uni-paderborn.de/event/115/registrations/143/
Organizer:
Dr. Jil Muller, Paderborn University

Research Colloquium – Dr. Dr. Luka Borsic: The Proto-Radical Feminism in 16th Century Dubrovnik: The Strange Case of Maruša Gundulić and Cvijeta Zuzorić
2025-06-16 16:00 - 18:00 | Technologiepark 8, Technologiepark 8, Paderborn, 33098, Germany
Dr. Dr. Luka Boršić, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Philosophy Zagreb (Croatia), will introduce us into hisresearch on Radical Feminism in 16th Century Dubrovnik: The Strange Case of Maruša Gundulić and Cvijeta Zuzorić.
The talk is part of the regular research colloquium held at the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists. The research colloquium is organized by Prof. Dr. Ruth E. Hagengruber.
The talk will start at 4 pm.
Everybody is welcome to attend.
Room: TP8.1.46
Building Technologiepark 8
Adress: Technologiepark 8, 33098 Paderborn, Germany

Online Workshop The Living Forces Debate across Europe (1686?–1743?)
2025-06-05 14:30 - 2025-06-06 19:00
The Online Workshop “The Living Forces Debate across Europe (1686?–1743?)” is organized by Dr. Pedro Pricladnitzky and Dr. Stefano Veneroni. It is a collaboration between the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists and the Istituto per la Storia del Pensiero Filosofico e Scientifico Moderno (ISPF-CNR).

The debate on living forces in early modern Europe was a pivotal intellectual conflict concerning the nature of motion, energy, and the fundamental principles governing the physical world. The conventional framing of the living forces debate situates its chronological boundaries between 1686, marked by the publication of Leibniz’s Brevis demonstratio, and 1743, with the first edition of d’Alembert’s Traité de Dynamique. However, this periodization warrants critical reconsideration, both on historical and theoretical grounds. Emerging in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, primarily revolving around the competing ideas of René Descartes, who advocated for the conservation of momentum (mass times velocity), and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who introduced the concept of vis viva (living force), proposing that the true measure of force was proportional to mass times the square of velocity.
Émilie Du Châtelet played a crucial role in this debate, providing a comprehensive synthesis of the competing theories, and articulating an original and influential defense of the vis viva principle. In her seminal work, Institutions de Physique (1740), she argued that the quantity conserved in nature was not simply the Cartesian momentum but rather what we now understand as kinetic energy. Du Châtelet’s contributions were instrumental in clarifying and advancing the discussion, influencing the eventual development of classical mechanics. Her critical engagement with both Newton’s Principia Mathematica and Leibniz’s writings demonstrated her profound understanding of complex physical concepts and underscored the importance of empirical evidence and mathematical rigor in scientific discourse.
The major works central to this debate include Descartes’ Principia Philosophiae (1644), Leibniz’s essays on dynamics, particularly his Brevis Demonstratio (1686) and Specimen Dynamicum (1695), and Du Châtelet’s Institutions de Physique (1740) and her discussion with Dortous de Mairan presents on the second edition in (1742) and influecing Kant’s early views on natural philosophy Gedanken von der wahren Schätzung der lebendigen Kräfte (1746–49).
These texts reflect the rich intellectual exchanges of the period, marking a significant evolution in the scientific understanding of motion and its causes. Beyond physics, the debate explored the nature of reality and the methodologies for understanding physical phenomena. It reflected broader shifts in scientific and philosophical thought having a major influence in the further developments on the natural sciences on the following centuries.
The program of the conference will soon be published.
If you want to register and receive the Zoom-Link, please click here.

Research Colloquium – Felix Grewe: Innovating Knowledge for the Future: Haraway's Storytelling from Cyborg to Companion Species
2025-06-02 16:00 - 18:00 | Technologiepark 8, Technologiepark 8, Paderborn, 33098, Germany
Felix Grewe, Research Fellow and Doctoral Student at the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, will introduce us into his research on Donna J. Haraway and her concepts of Storytelling. The talk Innovating Knowledge for the Future: Haraway’s Storytelling from Cyborg to Companion Species will give an introduction into the genesis of her innovative concepts of knowledge (re-)production including her concepts from the cyborg up to the more recent concept of companion species.
The talk is part of the regular research colloquium held at the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists. The research colloquium is organized by Prof. Dr. Ruth E. Hagengruber.
The talk will start at 4 pm.
Everybody is welcome to attend.
Room: TP8.1.46
Building Technologiepark 8
Adress: Technologiepark 8, 33098 Paderborn, Germany

New Voices Women's Ideas in the History of Medicine
2025-05-29 16:00 - 18:00
Martina Guzzetti: Pregnant Women’s Wellbeing in Jane Sharp’s “The Midwives’ Book” (1671)

Women’s health, wellbeing, and medical conditions have always been at the centre of gendered debates concerning, among other things, who has the necessary knowledge and authority to discuss and provide advice about them. Of the many branches of medicine involved in these debates, midwifery certainly holds a prominent position: in particular, between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, these controversies saw the rivalry between midwives and the emerging men-midwives encapsulated in their own publications. While men’s textbooks on midwifery were limited to the description of women’s anatomy and the discussion of the birth event itself (without taking into consideration what happened to women before, during, and after pregnancy), the midwives’ manuals offered a different point of view,

that is, one of a skilled practitioner (despite the misogynist stereotypes) who could also share with her patients the same experience, thus having access to a kind of knowledge which went beyond the purely technical one. This contribution deals in particular with Jane Sharp’s The Midwives’ Book (1671) and offers to focus precisely on an aspect often overlooked in men’s textbooks, that is, pregnant women’s wellbeing, be it physical and/or mental. The analysis considers the creation of discourses related, for example, to factors helping the conception of a child, to easing labour, and to preventing diseases after childbirth. In the discussion, particular attention will be devoted to the peculiar connection between midwives and pregnant women, and to the references to professional and private experience used to back up such knowledge.

About the Speaker…

Martina Guzzetti is a Post-Doctoral Researcher and Lecturer of English Language and Linguistics at the University of Insubria and the University of Milan. Her research is based around language and gender studies in historical perspective, with a focus on news discourse, lexicography, and the popularisation of medical knowledge. She is currently working on a project about pregnant women’s wellbeing in midwifery manuals and domestic dictionaries.

Everyone is welcome to attend. Please register here and you will get the Zoom-Link after registration.

Research Colloquium - Dr. Andrea Reichenberger - Grete Hermann: From Quantum Physics to Politics and Ethics
2025-05-19 16:00 - 18:00 | Technologiepark 8, Technologiepark 8, Paderborn, 33098, Germany
Dr. Andrea Reichenberger, research group leader at the Department of Mathematics at the University of Siegen, will introduce us into her research on Grete Hermann: From Quantum Physics to Politics and Ethics.
The talk is part of the regular research colloquium held at the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists. The research colloquium is organized by Prof. Dr. Ruth E. Hagengruber.
The talk will start at 4 pm.
Everybody is welcome to attend.
Room: TP8.1.46
Building Technologiepark 8
Adress: Technologiepark 8, 33098 Paderborn, Germany

Research Colloquium - Dr. Gabriele Schimmenti -(History of) Philosophy, Politics, and Art in Louise Dittmar (1807–1884): A Feminist Perspective
2025-05-15 16:00 - 18:00 | Building O, Paderborn University, Pohlweg 51, Paderborn, NRW, 33098, Germany
Dr. Gabriele Schimmenti, Post Doctoral Fellow and Adjunct Lecturer at the University Roma Tre (Italy), will introduce us into his research on (History of) Philosophy, Politics, and Art in Louise Dittmar (1807–1884): A Feminist Perspective.
The talk is part of the regular research colloquium and will take place at the Colloquium of Philosophy, organized by the department of Philosophy at Paderborn University.

The talk will start at 4 pm.
Everybody is welcome to attend.
Room: O2
Building O
Adress: Pohlweg 51, 33098 Paderborn, Germany

New Voices Women's Ideas in the History of Medicine
2025-05-14 16:00 - 18:00
Viktorya Vasilyan: A History of Breastfeeding: Its Iconography and Medical Importance

During human history, infants were fed human milk for survival, either through breastfeeding by their mothers or adoptive breastfeeding by other women. From antiquity to today, breastfeeding has been valued, reflected in mythology, philosophy, art, and religion worldwide. In ancient Armenia, it was prized for its health benefits, with wet nurses serving the upper classes while rural women breastfed for economic reasons. Colostrum was once deemed harmful but gained recognition in 1699 through Michael Ettmüller. During the European Renaissance, breastfeeding saw renewed appreciation in art, with depictions like suckler Lady and suckler Eve symbolising respect for motherhood.

Figures such as Hildegard of Bingen and Regina Areshian, founder of the Research Center of Maternal and Child Health Protection in Armenia, studied maternal hygiene and wet nursing. This work explores sociological, medical, and moral treatises on these themes, informed by research on the Virgo Lactans and Virgin of Humility. Iconography studies, such as those by Williamson, Sperling, Rivera, and Bergmann, provide critical insights into the Eve-Mary relationship and sacred images, though scholarly consensus on breastfeeding and wet nursing in the Middle Ages remains elusive.

About the Speaker…

Viktorya Vasilyan holds a PhD in History and serves as a researcher and the head of the Scientific Organisational Department at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, NAS RA. Additionally, she is a lecturer at the Traditional Medicine University of Armenia. Currently, she manages the “100 Archaeological Monuments of Armenia” project, an initiative aimed at exploring and documenting significant archaeological sites across the nation. More information about this project is available at https://ama100.am/en. She is also honoured to serve as a Goodwill Ambassador for Peace, Human Rights, and Humanity with the IHRO in Armenia.

Everyone is welcome to attend. Please register here and you will get the Zoom-Link after registration.

Research Colloquium - Fatima Zohra Iflahen - Women’s Rights Theories and Movements in Morocco and North Africa: Coming of Age or Tutorship?
2025-05-09 11:00 - 13:30 | zoom
Prof. Dr. Fatima-Zohra Iflahen, Full Professor at Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakesh, Morocco, will introduce us into her research on Women’s Rights Theories and Movements in Morocco and North Africa: Coming of Age or Tutorship?
The talk is part of the regular research colloquium held at the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists. The research colloquium is organized by Prof. Dr. Ruth E. Hagengruber.
The talk will start at 11 am (CEST).
Everybody is welcome to attend.
The talk will be held via zoom:
Zoom-Link https://uni-paderborn-de.zoom-x.de/j/92100765408

Research Colloquium - Michael Walshots: JOHANNA CHARLOTTE UNZER (1725–82): THE FIRST FEMALE GERMAN PHILOSOPHER
2025-05-05 16:00 - 18:00 | Technologiepark 8, Technologiepark 8, Paderborn, 33098, Germany
Dr. Michael Walshots, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, will introduce us into his research on Johanna Charlotte Unzer (1725–82): The first female german philosopher.
The talk is part of the regular research colloquium held at the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists. The research colloquium is organized by Prof. Dr. Ruth E. Hagengruber.
The talk will start at 4 pm.
Everybody is welcome to attend.
Room: TP8.1.46
Building Technologiepark 8
Adress: Technologiepark 8, 33098 Paderborn, Germany

New Voices Women's Ideas in the History of Medicine
2025-04-30 16:00 - 18:00
Karine Durin: Fluids as Dynamic and Organic Forces. Medical knowledge in Oliva Sabuco de Nantes

This work will examine the study of organic fluids and movements in the Nueva filosofía de la naturaleza del hombre, published by Oliva Sabuco de Nantes in 1587. The representation of the internal anatomy shows the dynamics that flow back and forth, combining the power of emotions and affects, the processes of digestion and the influence of the environment, all of which are expressed in Sabuco’s vision through the ebb and flow of movements of growth and decay. The categories of dry and wet are themselves governed by the emotions, in particular tristeza y descontento, when the soul and body are in discord. The regulating role of the emotions on the movement of fluids and even on the principles of digestion brings us back

back to the centre of the vital composition, which for Sabuco is the brain. From then, the flow of fluids in all their forms (milk, semen, bile, gastric fluid, tears, white blood, chyle) led us to follow Sabuco’s project of medical reform. But what happens in this text with the legacy of ancient and galenic physiology’s theories on fluids and humours? What philosophical interpretation stems from this interpretation of the bodily fluidity, which affects men, women and animals equally? The bodily fluidity in Sabuco gives rise to a rich metaphorical expression and highlights a vitalism correlated with a global vision of society whose reform project concludes the 1587 work.

About the Speakers…

Karine Durin is Full-Professor at the University of Nantes (France). She is a specialist of intellectual history in the Early Modern Iberian World. She recently published a chapter on Sabuco de Nantes, between Epicureanism and Stoicism (“A Female Dissenter in Counter-Reformation Spain”, De Gruyter, 2024) and a contribution on feminine reading of Baltasar Gracián in XVIIth century France (Classiques Garnier, 2024). She is currently working on the first translation of Sabuco’s treatise in French.

Everyone is welcome to attend. Please register here and you will get the Zoom-Link after registration.

Research Colloquium - Dr. Dagmar Pichová (Masaryk University, Brno), Czech Women Philosophers: Anna Pammrová and Albína Dratvová
2025-04-30 11:00 - 13:00 | Building E, Paderborn University, Warburger Straße 100, Paderborn, 33098, Germany
Dr. Pichová is giving a guest lecture in the seminar Radical Feminism (led by Ana Rodrigues).
The lecture will take place on campus in room E2.316.
Interested guests are welcome! However, due to limited room capacity, prior registration is requested: please email to ana.rodrigues@uni-paderborn.de

Dr. Pichová will present the life and work of two Czech women philosophers, Anna Pammrová (1860–1945) and Albína Dratvová (1892–1969).
Albína Dratvová was among the first women to graduate from Charles University in Prague. She was the first Czech woman philosopher to pursue an academic career, publish a philosophical monograph, and earn her habilitation in philosophy. Dratvová was also deeply engaged with psychology and ethical issues. In Smutek vzdělanců (The Sadness of Scholars, 1940), she explored the nature and causes of the distinct melancholy experienced by scholars as a consequence of their intellectual work.
Anna Pammrová spent most of her life in seclusion in the forest, living in extremely modest conditions. Despite her unconventional and largely self-directed education, she acquired extensive knowledge of foreign languages and translated philosophical texts into Czech. Her interests spanned Ancient Indian wisdom, theosophy, and the philosophy of Tolstoy, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche.
Dagmar Pichová argues that studying their work is valuable not only as a case study of Central European women philosophers but also for its broader intellectual contributions. Pammrová’s thought can be examined through the lens of contemporary ecofeminism, while Dratvová developed a complex perspective on the status and role of scholars in modern society.

New Voices Women's Ideas in the History of Medicine
2025-04-16 16:00 - 18:00
Shannon McHugh: Women’s Reproductive Lives in Renaissance Italian Lyric Poetry

What can a sonnet teach us about the history of women’s reproductive bodies? For the early modern world, notions about pregnancy and childbirth have been well documented by historians, who have combed through archival and print materials composed by the period’s medical, religious, and humanist authorities. Literary texts, however, have been consulted less, including lyric poetry; short, emotional poems are not normally among the historian’s go-to objects. Yet lyric is rife with representations of motherhood. Examples appear in verse written in vernacular and in Latin, in poems of Marian worship and of autobiographic account, such as the prolific poet Francesca Turina (1553–1641), who composed numerous poems on miscarriage, childbirth, and early motherhood.

The details captured in her descriptions both complicate standard historical narratives and flesh out our understanding of family practices in this period, shading in scholarly models with affective dimensions. This paper expands our understanding of the history of women’s reproductive autonomy by tracing depictions of pregnancy, abortion, miscarriage, birth, and nursing in Renaissance Italian lyric poetry. Unlike texts by medical and theological authorities, lyric provides access to personal experience and can do so on a wider scale: it was the most democratic of literary genres, practiced by men of various social stripes, and, in early modern Italy, by numerous women.

About the Speaker…

Shannon McHugh is Assistant Director of Research at The Huntington Library. Her research focuses on early modern Italian and French lyric poetry and gender. Publications include Petrarch and the Making of Gender in Renaissance Italy (Amsterdam UP, 2023) and the co-edited volume Vittoria Colonna: Poetry, Religion, Art, Impact(Amsterdam UP, 2021). She was the 2023–24 Molina Fellow in the History of Medicine at The Huntington, where she researched her current book project, “Women’s Reproductive Lives in Renaissance Lyric Poetry.”

Everyone is welcome to attend. Please register here and you will get the Zoom-Link after registration.

Open Day at the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists
2025-04-03 14:00 - 18:00 | Technologiepark 8, Technologiepark 8, Paderborn, 33098, Germany
On 3 April 2025, the Center will open its doors from 2 to 6 at its new location: Technologiepark 8, 1st floor. We would like to provide insights into our work in a relaxed atmosphere and look forward to inspiring conversations. Registration is not required – just come along and be inspired!

Find out more about our courses this summer semester that deal with the history of ideas of female philosophers.
Discover our current research projects and events. Take a sneak peek into our event calendar!
Get to know our research networks, cooperation partners and Erasmus opportunities.
Browse one of the largest digital databases on female philosophers and our online encyclopaedia for your next paper.

We are also happy to offer you the opportunity to complete an internship with us and actively participate in our projects.
Come and get to know the team at the Center.

New Voices Women's Ideas in the History of Medicine
2025-04-02 16:00 - 18:00
Anna Gili: Women’s Health in Early Islamic Medical Works: Contextualising al-Maǧūsī’s “Kitāb al-malakī”

Al-Maǧūsī, a Zoroastrian physician from the Fārs province, composed his Kitāb al-malakī during the second half of the tenth century. This medical encyclopaedia in ten books which aims to synthesize and systematize all earlier medical knowledge into a unified whole also devotes great attention to women’s health issues. Al-Maǧūsī’s analysis encompasses topics such as foetal formation, growth, and female anatomy along gynaecological diseases, the diet of pregnant women and the role of midwives, while also examining cures for gynaecological ailments and specific surgical operations.

Based on the assumption that the Kitāb al-malakī should be studied as an organic treatise, my talk will present an overview of how and why reproduction, maternity, and fertility were considered relevant in the tenth century. I will also be assessing to what extent the Kitāb al-malakī relies on earlier sources and which innovations are contributed by al- Maǧūsī himself.

About the Speaker…

Anna Gili is a PhD student in Latin and Arabic philology at the University of Padua and the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (cotutelle de thèse). Her main research interest is the transmission of medical knowledge from Greek into Arabic and from Arabic into Latin during the Middle Ages. Her PhD project aims to critically edit and study the books on pathology in the medical encyclopaedia al-Kitāb al-Malakī, composed by ʿAlī ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Maǧūsī (10th c.) and in its two Latin translations, namely the Pantegni by Constantine the African and the Liber regalis by Stephen of Antioch.

Everyone is welcome to attend. Please register here and you will get the Zoom-Link after registration.

New Voices Women's Ideas in the History of Medicine
2025-03-19 16:00 - 18:00
Irene Calà: Aspasia and the Others: Women and Medicine in Late Antiquity

Medical texts from Late Antiquity are invaluable for our understanding of lost medical sources. This is particularly true for the medical work of Aetius, a physician native to Amida, lived in the first half of the sixth century AD, and author of a 16-book treatise known as Libri medicinales. This compilation is considered one of the most significant and source-rich works of its time. While female sources in medical texts appear quite limited or entirely absent—such as in the works of Oribasius of Pergamum—they undoubtedly represent one of the primary sources for the last of the Libri medicinales, where Aetius lists a certain Aspasia as a specialist in various medical practices related to gynaecology and obstetrics.

The prominence of Aspasia seems, at times, to overshadow that of the more renowned Soranus of Ephesus, who is considered the foremost authority on women’s diseases. From this observation, we will attempt to trace the remnants of a medical literature written by women, echoes of which are preserved in the medical texts of Late Antiquity. The selected passages related to fertility, pregnancy, and childbirth management will be discussed, highlighting the physical and psychological approach that characterizes Aspasia’s medical practice and the concrete role played by women in the care of women.

About the Speaker…

Irene Calà is research associate at the Institute for Ethics, History, and Theory of Medicine at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. She is specialist of Greek medicine in Late Antiquity, with a focus on the continuity of medical knowledge from antiquity through the Renaissance. She is currently working on the first critical edition of the unpublished books of Aetius of Amida, in the DFG project led by Mathias Witt.

Everyone is welcome to attend. Please register here and you will get the Zoom-Link after registration.

About the Entanglements of Life
2025-03-03 16:30 - 18:30 | TU Dresden/ZOOM
Inputtalk zur regulären stattfindenden Veranstaltung Pillars & Umbrellas des Gleichstellungsprogramms der Technischen Universität Dresden. Im Rahmen der Veranstaltungsreihe findet am kommenden Montag 3. März 2025 ein DIALOGUE – Format der Kolloquiumsreihe statt. Es handelt sich dabei um den vierten Teil der Kolloquiumsreihe mit dem Thema Reshape Reality – Questioning Claims of Neutrality for Inclusive TechnoFutures, bei dem unser Kollege Felix Grewe einen Inputtalk zu Donna J. Haraway halten wird.
Der Titel des Talks lautet: About the Entanglements of Life – Donna J. Haraway and her theories on becoming with/kinship
Mehr Informationen zur Veranstaltung können auf der Seite der TU Dresden abgerufen werden.

New Voices Winter 2025: Women in the History of Analytic Philosophy and Philosophy of Science
2025-02-26 16:30 - 18:00
Dr. Amanda J. Favia (Nassau Community College): What’s Self-love Got to Do with it? E.E. Constance Jones on the Deduction of Prudence from Benevolence
E. E. (Emily Elizabeth) Constance Jones (1848-1922) was a prominent figure in British philosophy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries known primarily for her work in philosophical logic. Jones, however, also made important contributions to ethics and moral psychology. This talk will focus on one of those contributions—Jones’s response to Sidgwick’s “dualism of practical reason”, a problem that Sidgwick never resolved to his own satisfaction. Sidgwick held that practical reason has an allegiance to two distinct ‘methods’: self-love (prudence) and benevolence (duty to others). While both methods are independently rational, they may potentially come into conflict. This, for Jones, presented “the most important difficulty of the system of [Sidgwick’s] Universalistic Hedonism”. As such, she returned to this problem a number of times in the course of her career producing several original and promising responses. In two of her most promising responses—what I will call the Argument from Temporal Irrelevance and the Argument from Mutual Dependency—Jones attempts to demonstrate a necessary connection between self-love and benevolence that subverts the problematic dualism. Ultimately, there is no actual conflict of methods, only an appearance of one. After a close analysis of these two arguments, I will consider some challenges to her view and argue that even if her arguments are not entirely successful in resolving the “dualism of practical reason”, they succeed in changing the course of the debate.

New Voices Winter 2025: Women in the History of Analytic Philosophy and Philosophy of Science
2025-02-19 16:30 - 18:00
Dr. Julia Franke-Reddig (University of Siegen and Université de Genève): Ilse (Rosenthal-)Schneider and Einstein on Kantian Philosophy
The name Ilse (Rosenthal-)Schneider is not well known today. However, she was a promising student of Albert Einstein, Max von Laue, and Alois Riehl, publishing her dissertation on the space-time problem in the context of Kant and Einstein with Springer in 1921. Although prominent philosophers like Moritz Schlick and Hans Reichenbach harshly criticized her interpretation of the relationship between transcendental philosophy and the theory of relativity, Einstein himself supported Schneider’s work, even after her exile to Australia in 1938.
In Australia, she never obtained a professorship but remained actively engaged in research and university life. Notably, she later became a key figure in the foundation of Australian philosophy of science. Systematically, Schneider advocated for a Neo-Kantian view, arguing that transcendental philosophy was compatible with the general theory of relativity. While I do not aim to determine whether her interpretation was correct, it is worth noting that Einstein—though not a philosopher and unfamiliar with Kantian philosophy—has often been associated with philosophical interpretations of relativity theory, particularly by thinkers who reject a transcendental perspective.
As Klaus Hentschel pointed out, Einstein evolved from being a conventionalist in 1917 to adopting a philosophical realist stance in later years. This evolution makes Schneider’s perspective on the philosophical interpretation of relativity theory particularly intriguing. She maintained close correspondence and professional exchange with Einstein until the end of his life.
In my talk, I will reconstruct Schneider’s position on the relationship between Kantian philosophy and relativity theory and compare it to Einstein’s comments on the subject. This analysis aims to propose an approach or an initial framework for a better understanding Einstein’s position regarding the philosophical implications of his theory.

New Voices Winter 2025: Women in the History of Analytic Philosophy and Philosophy of Science
2025-02-12 16:30 - 18:00
Dr. Suki Finn (Royal Holloway University of London): Thinking (About Stebbing) To Some (Feminist) Purpose
Susan Stebbing’s popular book, Thinking To Some Purpose, was first published in 1939, went out of print for many decades, and was finally republished in 2022. The relevance of and need for the book is as pertinent now as it was when it was written. This paper outlines its applicability to the contemporary political setting and positions it as a feminist text. As such, I think about Stebbing to some purpose, namely, some feminist purpose, and argue that this gives purpose to Thinking To Some Purpose in present times. Gillian Russell (2024) has deemed Thinking To Some Purpose to be feminist insofar as it can be utilised to serve feminist ends; Sophia M. Connell and Frederique Janssen-Lauret (2023) take Stebbing’s work to exemplify and promote epistemic virtues that one could take to be feminist; Bryan Pickel (2022) highlights Stebbing’s holistic view of thought that incorporates a persons social situation, which is reminiscent of feminist epistemology. I agree on all of these accounts and find further evidence to paint a feminist picture of Stebbing, arguing for the rightful place of Thinking To Some Purpose as a crucial book for and of feminism, inside and outside of academic philosophy.

Mensch, Maschine, Muse. Wie die digitale Zukunft durch humanistische Werte prosperiert
2025-02-06 18:00 - 20:00 | Theater Paderborn, Neuer Platz 6, Paderborn, 33098, Germany
Mensch, Maschine, Muse. Wie die digitale Zukunft durch humanistische Werte prosperiert
Vortrag von Prof. Dr. Ruth Edith Hagengruber im Rahmen der Vortragsreihe Kreative Intelligenz – Kulturschaffen in Zeiten von KI. Im Anschluss findet eine Gesprächsrunde mit Ruth Edith Hagengruber, Axel Berndt, Julia Eckel, Patrick Hübner, Karsten Strack und Jennifer Becker statt. Die Veranstaltung wird moderiert von Lena Kern.
Donnerstag 6. Februar 2025, 18:00
Theater Paderborn
Neuer Platz 6
33098 Paderborn

New Voices Winter 2025: Women in the History of Analytic Philosophy and Philosophy of Science
2025-02-05 16:30 - 18:00
Dr. Giulia Felappi, (University of Southampton): “There is no reason for the necessity of the ultimate principles of deduction.” Margaret MacDonald on Logical Necessity.
This talks aims at contributing to the recent enterprise of rediscovering Margaret MacDonald’s views, by focusing on her reflections on the necessity of logic, a theme that runs through many of her papers and reviews. As it has been noted, MacDonald was profoundly influenced by Peirce, the Vienna Circle’s positivists, Stebbing and Wittgenstein, in particular the one of the lectures he delivered in the mid 1930s in Cambridge. Those authors surely form the background against which she developed her own views on the necessity of logic. But in this paper we will not aim at discussing her claims to detect those influences. Rather, we will focus on MacDonald’s claims themselves, and the reasons she put forward to support them. We will see both MacDonald’s negative views about what the necessity of logic is not (§1), and her positive view about what it is and how it supports her claim that it is in fact irrational to ask for a reason for the necessity of logic (§2). We will conclude by considering what she would reply now to defenders of dialethism and paraconsistent logics, to better show how her view on the necessity of logic is different from others, such as David Lewis’s (§3).

Research Colloquium - Inken Schmidt-Voges & Sina Menke
2025-02-03 16:00 - 18:00 | Technologiepark 21, Universität Paderborn, 33100, Germany
Prof. Dr. Inken Schmidt-Voges (Universität Marburg) and Sina Menke will present their Research. More information coming soon.

Research Colloquium - Andreas Vrahimis
2025-01-27 16:00 - 18:00 | Technologiepark 21, Universität Paderborn, 33100, Germany
Talk by Dr. Andreas Vrahimis (University of Cyprus). More Information coming soon.

African Feminist Theories
2025-01-24 - 2025-01-25 | Paderborn University, Warburger Str. 100, Paderborn, NRW, 33098, Germany
Workshop African Feminist Theories organised and held by Ana Paula Coelho Rodrigues (Paderborn University/Center HWPS) in cooperation with Dr. Taleb Eli (Skyline University College UAE).
This three-day workshop provides an introduction to the theoretical production of African feminism.
The first day (December 6, 2024) is dedicated to the development of African feminist thought from the critique of white, Western feminism and its special relationship to postcolonial approaches, black feminism and intersectionalism.
On the second day (January 24, 2025), participants will be introduced to the most important representatives, key works and central positions such as Womanism, Stiwanism, Nego-Feminism and Africana-Womanism.
The third day (January 25, 2025) of the block seminar consists of a workshop with a guest lecturer from Mauritania, Dr. Eli Taleb, and will therefore be held in English. In terms of content, Dr. Taleb will set his own – yet to be announced – priorities.
A registration is required. Please contact Ana Paula Coelho Rodrigues.

New Voices 2025: Women in the History of Analytic Philosophy and Philosophy of Science
2025-01-22 16:30 - 18:00
Dr. Peter West (Northestern University, London): Dorothy Emmet’s Moral Philosophy
Dorothy Emmet (1904-2000) was only the second woman in Britain to be a Professor of Philosophy, when she was appointed to the position at Manchester University in 1946. She succeeded Susan Stebbing and, like Stebbing, was the only woman in Britain to be a Professor of Philosophy upon her appointment (Stebbing died in 1943). There is currently almost no secondary literature on Emmet (West 2023 is an exception) and virtually no scholarship on her moral philosophy (aside from Larry Blum’s recent discussions of Emmet in connection to the Wartime Quartet).
Yet, Emmet’s work in moral philosophy makes for fascinating reading. As a student in Oxford she studied under A. D. Lindsay and, like Lindsay, felt almost immediately disillusioned by the moral philosophy she saw taking place around her, which seemed too abstract and detached from the real world. Emmet’s intuitions were further cemented during her summers as a student which she spent teaching Plato’s Republic to miners in Wales. In 1966, she published Rules, Roles and Relations. The central thesis of the text is that moral philosophy should draw on the insights of sociology. Sociology, Emmet argues, informs us that human relations and interactions are too complex and ‘intermingled’ to be subjected to the kind of abstract analysis that moral philosophers typically employ. In particular, Emmet argues that the roles we play in a society (roles like mother, sister, colleague, police officer, teacher, member of parliament, and so on) have a deep influence on the kinds of actions we perform and the morality of those actions.
In this paper, I will reconstruct Emmet’s approach to moral philosophy. I will also argue that, like Stebbing and (afterwards) members of the Wartime Quartet, Emmet felt that modern moral philosophy should take inspiration from Aristotle. Instead of focusing on linguistic analysis of terms like ‘good’ and on atomistic conceptions of interactions between agents, moral philosophy should focus on our character traits, virtues (or what Emmet calls ‘excellences’), and on our ways of living.

New Voices Winter 2025: Women in the History of Analytic Philosophy and Philosophy of Science
2025-01-15 16:30 - 18:00
Dr. Andreas Vrahimis (University of Cyprus): Stebbing’s critique of Schiller’s pragmatism
Whereas early criticisms of pragmatist theories of truth by analytic philosophers like Russell and G.E. Moore are well known, and helped shape the ongoing debates on this topic, L. Susan Stebbing’s significant contributions to the debate have hitherto largely been ignored. At the outset of her career, Stebbing became embroiled in a controversy with F.C.S. Schiller, spanning multiple publications, in which she objected against his variant of the pragmatist account of truth. As Chapman notes, the debate is somewhat abstruse and ‘does not make very satisfactory reading’ (2013, 30). It involves multiple forms of miscommunication, largely due to Schiller’s failure, throughout the debate, to acknowledge the significance of some of Stebbing’s arguments. In this paper, I reconstruct the debate in a manner that clarifies the arguments on either side. I thereby re-evaluate the debate’s significance for understanding the development of Stebbing’s views and their position within the history of analytic philosophy’s early critical encounters with pragmatism. At stake in the debate is, primarily, the question whether the pragmatist tenet ‘all that is true works’ is logically convertible into the obverse claim that ‘all that works is true’. I demonstrate that this question originates in Moore’s prior objections against William James’ theory of truth. The debate is prompted by Schiller’s reply to Moore, in which he rejects that the pragmatist theory of truth entails this convertibility. He does this by attempting to account for falsehoods that work. In developing a series of detailed objections, Stebbing aims to demonstrate Schiller’s response to Moore to be inadequate. I show that, contrary to what has been commonly assumed in the recent scholarly literature, Stebbing’s (qualified) defence of Moorean theses began already at the outset of her career. In his multiple responses to Stebbing, Schiller ends up denying that pragmatism upholds a criterion for truth, but claims it only involves a specific view of confirmation. I argue that, once the misunderstandings are cleared away, the debate can be shown to have ended prematurely, with a number of challenges posed by Stebbing left unanswered by Schiller’s confirmationism.

Anniversary of Émilie Du Châtelet: Paris Manuscript bnf Nr. 12265 - the complete online presentation
2024-12-17 | Paderborn University, Warburger Str. 100, Paderborn, 33098, Germany
Anniversary of Émilie Du Châtelet:
Émilie Du Châtelet
Paris Manuscript bnf Nr. 12265 – the complete online presentation.

More information coming soon
