Philosophy

Philosophical attitudes towards gender, sexuality, and the corresponding roles of men and women find their roots in the mind-body distinction: The human being comprises a rational substance (the mind or the soul) and a material substance (the body). These substances were not viewed equally. The mind, which was assigned to men or the male, was privileged over the body, which was assigned to women, or the female. Although the distinction is present in the pre-Socratics, for example, in Pythagoras's (569–475 bce) Table of Opposites, development of this gendered distinction by Plato (c. 427–342 bce) and Aristotle (384–322 bce) had the greatest impact on the history of philosophy and the social institutions it influenced.

The medieval philosophers continued to emphasize this distinction. Significantly the strong influence of the three monotheistic religions on this period produced philosophies that had a significant impact on the cultures in which they developed. Thus the modern period from which the Enlightenment emerged strongly reacted to the Church philosophies of the medieval period. Modern philosophy resisted the role of faith and religious discourse in philosophy. Yet, in spite of this resistance, many of the vestiges of mind-body dualism and sexed characteristics that defined subjectivity in masculine terms remained intact.

The emergence of both existentialism and phenomenology in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century philosophy challenged the view of the subject conceived in terms of the mind-body distinction. This new formulation of the subject provided other avenues of understanding gender, sexuality, and sex roles since the typical mapping was now contested. Deconstruction and post-structuralist movements provided a methodology for men and women to challenge normative views of sex and sexuality that until then had been accepted as biological or even social facts.

PLATO'S LEGACY

Plato's most explicit references to the mind-body distinction are found in the Phaedo (c. 380–360 bce) and the Republic (c. 380–360 bce). The Phaedo, the retelling of Socrates's death, describes the philosopher's aim: to live life such that in death the soul will be liberated from the body. The philosopher must not become attached to worldly goods—to friends, children, sensuous pleasures, and so forth. When Socrates's friend begins to weep for him, Socrates tells him that he is acting a like a woman and threatens to expel him from the room.

The Republic provides the most developed account of the mind-body distinction and the correlated views of men and women. Plato divides the human being into the soul and body and then further divides the soul into three parts, where each part is responsible for a different activity. The appetitive part controls sensuous desires—hunger, thirst, and so forth; the spirited part of the soul controls emotional response such as righteous indignation; and the rational part of the soul, or reason, is intended to keep these two parts of the soul in balance. Plato's description of the three different groups of people in the Republic—male or female—corresponds to the three different parts of the soul. Each group is determined by the dominant power of one of the three parts: an appetitive person; a spirited person; a rational person. These three groups of people then correspond to the three different classifications of jobs and social roles in the Republic—each person can do one and only one task. Appetitive people will be merchants; spirited people will be the guardians of the city; and rational people will be the philosopher kings.

Plato's categories do not assume that all men will have rational souls nor does it assume that only men will have rational souls. In Book V of this dialogue, Plato responds to the following question, "What is the role of women in the Republic?" He demonstrates that although childbearing is part of women's nature, it is not a task that will prevent them from performing other tasks simultaneously. Childbearing is a temporary act while childrearing is ongoing. Although he does conclude that childrearing is not an essential part of women's nature, insofar as women rear children, they are incapable of doing anything else.

The varied and often conflicting scholarship on Plato's attitude towards women as philosopher-guardians of the republic reveals the ambiguity with regard to gender in his philosophical project. He nonetheless claims that women are not necessarily excluded from the class of individuals whose soul is controlled by the rational part. Yet it is also clear that in order to live the life of the philosopher there is a cost: women must give up childrearing responsibilities, which tie them to their bodily life. The separation of matter and form, picked up by Aristotle and carried into the Middle Ages, permeated the history of philosophy and had a substantial impact on early feminist theory.

Although Aristotle, Plato's most famous student, developed his own ideas, apart from those of his teacher, there are significant ways in which one can see the latter's influence. First and foremost is Aristotle's understanding of biology, and in particular, reproduction. Plato's mind-body dualism appears in Aristotle's description of what each, male and female, contribute to the reproductive process. Although Aristotle's renderings of how reproduction occurs are not always consistent with each other, the received view states that the male contributes the seed while the female contributes the warm place for this seed to develop. Another description of reproduction has the male contributing power (dunamis) to the act whereas the female contributes the matter upon which the power acts.

The significance of either rendering, however, is the assumption of the relative passivity of the female's contribution to the process. In the first description, the female is simply seen as a vessel in which the seed develops. In the second rendering, the female provides the matter, but the matter is nothing until it is acted upon by the power provided by the male. Aristotle's descriptions of reproduction reinscribe the characteristics of active male/passive female that influenced not only the medieval philosophers, but also had a significant impact on how science understood reproduction and the role of the woman in that process well into the twentieth century.

In spite of this view of reproduction, however, Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics provides a space for reconsidering stereotypical feminine and masculine characteristics. For example, Aristotle's focus on [the] phronesis, practically wise judgment, acknowledges the important, even necessary role, that emotions play in ethical judgment. The practically wise person considers context—the right decision or reaction in one instance might not be appropriate in another. Although Aristotle was not looking to women for his model, his understanding of the role of emotions provided an important contrast to the ethical theories that developed in the modern period.

MEDIEVAL PERIOD

The medieval philosophical period is marked by the intersection of the three monotheistic religions: Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. As a result, philosophical motivations are often blurred with theological presuppositions. Generally speaking, Christian medieval philosophy, dominated by Saint Augustine (354–430) and Thomas Aquinas (1224–1275), and Jewish medieval philosophy, dominated by Maimonides (1135–1204) and Gersonides (1288–1344), adopts the Platonic/Aristotelian model of soul and body, which accorded a privileged status to rationality. As a result, the philosophers of the medieval period endorsed the respective views of male and female, men and women that correspond to that model.

Christian Philosophy

Early Christianity promoted both chastity and celibacy. However this early view did not result from a negative view of the body or bodily behaviors; rather it emerged from a sense of liberation from the restrictive laws governing marriage during this time period. As Pagels explains, young women and men were required by the state to marry at very early ages. For men, marriage was connected to their entrance into civic responsibility. Men and women took vows of celibacy, which they viewed as liberating in the face of oppressive state responsibility. Augustine, ironically, is credited with contributing to the negative view of the body that continues to exist in Christian thinking while also providing a positive view of sexuality. Augustine argued that sexuality should be expressed through marriage and only then for the primary purpose of procreation. Significantly this view differed radically from the Jewish view that sexual pleasure for its own sake was not only morally acceptable; it was also frequently lauded in rabbinic sources. Augustine condemns sexual pleasure even in marriage that is pursued for its own sake and without any intention to procreate. Augustine refers to the wife as "the husband's harlot," and to the man as "the wife's adulterer." (Augustine Book 1, Chapter 17).

Aquinas's view of sexuality as described in his Summa Theologica followed Augustine's view. Insofar as one's action accords with reason, the action is not sinful. Thus sexual acts that keep with the end of human procreation follow the order of reason. Aquinas also contributed significantly to the discussion of sexuality within a Christian context. Influenced by Aristotle, Aquinas held that a fetus was not ensouled until quickening—when the woman could feel the baby kick. He held that up to this point the termination of the fetus was life destroying, but it was not a homicidal act. In spite of Aquinas's influence on early Catholicism, the Catholic view of abortion has changed dramatically. In the early-twenty-first century, abortion is not sanctioned by the Catholic Church even to save the life of the mother, unless the principle of double effect can apply: The intention is not to kill the fetus, but rather to do something else. For example, in the case of uterine cancer, the intention would be to remove the uterus, not the fetus per se.

The impact on church dogma and practice are clear. First, any sexual activity pursued outside of a recognized marriage is sinful. Second, any sexual activity pursued without the express intention to procreate, even if pursued within a recognized marriage, is sinful. On this view, all homosexual activity and self-gratifying sexual activity is sinful. To the extent that heterosexual activity does not satisfy these criteria, it is also sinful. Augustine's view of marriage, sexuality, and divorce was widely influential. Catholicism recognizes still the rhythm method as the only legitimate form of birth control, greatly restricting sexual relations both inside and outside of Church-recognized marriages. Insofar as sexual behavior was not regulated by the Church, couples, and in particular women, continue to risk pregnancies that are unwanted, whether due to financial, emotional, social, or personal concerns (e.g., if pregnancy would be life-threatening). Finally, insofar as abortion is restricted save in very specific circumstances, a woman's life appears to be subordinated to the life of the fetus.

Jewish Philosophy

Jewish philosophy, even in the medieval period, presents a more complex system. The primacy of reason that characterizes much of the western philosophical canon is found primarily in Maimonides and Gersonides, but is absent in the pietistic philosophers such as Judah Halevi (1075–1141). Yet even as the Aristotelian presence is noticed, it is nonetheless a modified Aristotelianism. As pre-Christian philosophers, Plato and Aristotle had a tremendous impact on the formation of Christian metaphysics. Their philosophical impact continued into the modern period and well into the twentieth century. Because Judaism as a religion emerged before the Greek philosophical period, individual Jewish philosophers were influenced by the social milieu in which they lived, but that influence was mitigated by the philosophical underpinnings of the Jewish religion as expressed in its sacred texts.

For example, in Judaism, specific dimensions of bodily life are not disparaged and are even encouraged and lauded—sexual pleasure, the enjoyment of children and family life, and so forth. The Laws of Onah and the marriage contract itself (the ketubah) specify that the husband is obligated to provide sexual satisfaction to his wife, even if she is unable to bear children (e.g., she is beyond the reproductive years). Yet, in spite of this view, Maimonides, in adopting an Aristotelian model of form trumping matter, also adopted a negative view of the body, women, and human sexuality. For Maimonides, the relationship between form and matter ultimately points to the necessity of female subordination to the male. She, as matter, must be dominated by masculine reason. Either she is, in which case the point is proven. Or she is not, in which case the characterization of her as recalcitrant is proven. Although Maimonides is often viewed as the dominant Jewish philosopher of the medieval period, he is certainly not the only one of importance. Philosopher Sarah Pessin argues that Spanish poet and mystic philosopher Solomon Ibn Gabirol (1021–1058) provides a counter to the Maimonidean view. Gabirol does not offer a specifically feminist view of women. Rather he explicitly privileges materiality by linking it to the divine. In so doing, he allows for the privileging of the feminine and the traits associated with it.

Islamic Philosophy

Islamic philosophy, similar to Christian and Jewish philosophy, raises questions regarding the relationship between philosophy and theology. One branch of Islamic philosophy utilized Greek philosophy, in particular Aristotle's work, to counter orthodox Islamic principles. Yet the attitudes towards gender in philosophy and theology were not necessarily consistent. Insofar as Islamic philosophy appropriated Aristotle's metaphysics, its view of gender ought to have been parallel to that developed by Aristotle. Spanish philosopher and physician Averroës (1126–1198) is most noted for his view that philosophy is incompatible with religion, if each is done properly—a view not much different from that found in both modern and contemporary philosophy. In particular, the difference can be seen in Persian philosopher and scientist Avicenna's (980–1037) criticism of Aristotle's theory of generation.

Contrary to Aristotle, Avicenna claimed that the female did provide a formal contribution. However, even with this concession, Avicenna's description of the account of generation reveals that this formal contribution is inferior and secondary to that of the male. The Aristotelian influence on Avicenna can be attributed to music theorist and scholar Abu Nasr Al-Farabi (870–950), who is credited with introducing Aristotle and Plato to the Arabic world. Avicenna's concept of a person included a concept of the soul that was differentiated as male or female. Although Avicenna believed in eternal life, his lack of belief in preexisting souls—souls can be differentiated only through matter, and thus embodiment—led him also to believe that even after souls were separated from their bodies they retained their sexed differentiation. Thus even after being separated from their respective bodies, sexed souls will not attain equality. Avicenna accepted Aristotle's view of men and women (i.e., women are the privation of men), even though he was critical of Aristotle's theory of generation. Avicenna advocated the husband's required care of the woman, which allowed her the financial freedom, ironically, to pursue nontechnical forms of education—poetry, philosophy, law, and music. Although Avicenna's criticisms of Aristotle were not enough to limit Aristotle's future influence, Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine (c. 1593), which included discussions of pregnancy, natural abortion, and lactation, was important in the study of medicine.

In contrast to Avicenna, Averroës accepted Aristotle's account of generation: The female contributes matter and the male contributes form. Averroës claims that the latter is due to more heat in the male. Additionally Averroës held that men and women could not attain friendships of equality with each other. Interestingly the Platonic influence on Averroës led to a view of gender relations different from that yielded by the Aristotelian influence. Like Plato, Averroës believed that men and women had the same end, and that women were capable of philosophy. Insofar as he believed that Law commands the study of philosophy, one might infer that women were included in this view. In this regard, it is not clear if Plato or Aristotle had the greater impact on Averroës. Also not clear is whether Averroës's turn from Plato to Aristotle changed his mind with regard to women. Yet Averroës is noted for expressing dismay at the treatment of women in Islamic culture and he worried that women were destined to become nothing more than child bearers or servants to their husbands. His express concern that there was no space for women to develop their talents reveals an underlying Platonic influence. Interestingly these views angered religious zealots and Averroës was eventually removed from his post as jurist to the king. The fact that Aristotle's views had a lasting effect on the masses makes it difficult to determine what lasting impact Averroës's platonic views had.

Iranian philosopher Suhrawardi (1154–1191), the founder of the Illuminationist School, was influenced by doctrines of belief of both Aristotle and Avicenna. Explicitly critical of Avicenna's philosophy in many ways, Suhrawardi's philosophy resembles Plato's theory of the forms more than Aristotle's metaphysics. Suharawardi's philosophy is characterized by a focus on light, emanating from the light of lights, and decreasing evermore in intensity. This light is then governed by the light that governs reality. Most notably, in his treatise on chivalry, Suhrawardi advocates more compassion in human actions towards others. For example, if a woman has been accused of sexual immorality, he advocates compassion towards her rather than adherence to the cultural norm of obtaining four reputable witnesses to the action and then stoning her to death. His notes on chivalry, rather than paternalistic as in other such codes, genuinely advocate a sympathetic approach to both men and women, not only for their sake, but also for the spiritual development of those who would administer the accepted and expected punishment.

Islam as a practiced religion functions differently from the philosophical positions that are classified as Islamic. For example, in Islam the way to the divine is through the heart, viewed as distinctly feminine. There are numerous references in the Koran that exalt Mary, mother of Jesus, as the mediator or the connection between God and God's creation. As in Suhrawardi's philosophy, Sufism extols the typically feminine characteristics of joy, love, tenderness, and self-sacrifice. Like Judaism, the attitudes towards gender, found in the sacred texts, may differ altogether from how gender and gender roles are viewed and treated within the social-political context of the lived religion. And like Judaism and Christianity, Islam is not monolithic. Islam's emphasis on the mind or spiritual development of the individual promoted a positive view of woman.

MODERN PERIOD

The modern philosophical period (1550–1900) begins with French mathematician and philosopher René Descartes (1596–1650) and Dutch philosopher Benedict Spinoza (1632–1677), both of whom were influenced by the medieval period—philosophically, politically, and religiously. Descartes is noted for his extreme mind-body dualism. Spinoza is credited with providing a corrective to this dualism. Most significantly, Spinoza's emphasis on reason gave birth to Enlightenment philosophy. The modern period is characterized primarily by the emergence of the French and British Enlightenments, which emphasized the universality of reason. This emphasis laid the ground for universal human rights even as it contributed to maintaining gender stereotypes. In spite of claims to universality, women were often excluded from the category of beings capable of rationality. Even when women successfully entered these elite circles, the general attitude towards their supposed natural behavior remained. Women's social roles and female biological roles that fell outside the realm of rationality were ascribed a lower status.

The German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), in his essay "What is Enlightenment?" (1784), concludes that women and others are unable to think rationally not because of human defect but because they have not been permitted to use or develop this faculty. Kant's view is consistent with the Enlightenment project. Yet, in so far as the dualism was accepted, behavior that could be viewed as irrational or arational was treated as less important. Including women in the category of rational beings did not necessarily improve their status or the opinion of behavior and labor that was defined as female or feminine.

In addition to maintaining the privileged status of reason, the early modern period also emphasized autonomy, freedom, and independence in its definition of human subjectivity, once again by implication lowering the status of those behaviors—childbearing, childrearing, and the nurturing of others—that were characteristic of women. Although this description is both common and accurate, it disregards the nuances that typify many of the philosophers of the modern period. For example, Swiss philosopher and writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau's (1712–1778) political philosophy reveals his desire for human subjects to be autonomous and independent in order to make wise and ethical political decision and his wish for those human beings to have healthy relationships with others. A close examination of Rousseau's educational treatise Emile (1762) exposes both a supremely negative view of women and also a view of women that portrays them as both ethically wise and epistemically privileged. In fact, they are presented as the model for human subjectivity. Rousseau is also clear, however, that there is a distinction to be made between men and women, male and female, and this difference is to be maintained.

Developing Rousseau's political thought, German philosopher G. W. F. Hegel (1770–1831) appropriates the gendered description of civil society. Women are incorporated into the civil society through their participation in the family. Using the example of Greek dramatist Sophocles's (c. 496–406 bce) character of Antigone in his Phenomenology of Spirit, Hegel contrasts the gendered duty of Antigone's responsibility to bury her treasonous brother, an act that directly defies Creon's rule of political law, with her responsibility to the state. Even as women participated in civil society, their duties to the family would necessarily exclude them from any authentic participation.

Hegel's view of women, or gender, in both the Phenomenology and The Philosophy of Right is the source of controversy even among feminist theorists. Some twentieth-century scholars such as Luce Irigaray and Patricia Mills argue that Hegel's emphasis on the family and the role of women in the family necessarily excludes them from participation in civil society, even according them a lower status than the slave who eventually moves the dialectic. Irigaray argues that Hegel overlooked the potency of this gendered division. Using Hegel's own example of Antigone, Irigaray shows that insofar as women are confined to a particular gendered role, the fulfillment of this sexed behavior actually becomes the cause of civil society's undoing. Antigone had no choice but to act as a woman—to respect the religious law and obey it even if this obedience meant disobeying Creon's political order. The modern period brings to the fore the tension in masculinity and femininity, especially as these ideals relate to the political community.

TWENTIETH TO TWENTY-FIRST CENTURIES

Several philosophical developments in the twentieth century provided radical critiques of the European and North American philosophical conception of subjectivity. Phenomenology allowed for the reconsideration of the traditional model of mind-body dualism in discussions of subjectivity. German philosopher Edmund Husserl's (1859–1938) Cartesian Meditations (1931) and Maurice Merleau-Ponty's (1908–1961) Phenomenology of Perception (1945) challenged the idea of a disembodied consciousness. Although neither of these philosophers made explicit reference to gender per se, the implications of their philosophical project for feminist thought and conceptions of subjectivity have been far reaching. Despite this, feminists have taken issue with Husserl's emphasis on the ego as not bodily enough and with Merleau-Ponty's examples of sexuality in the Phenomenology of Perception. The concern with regard to the latter is that his examples presume a traditional conception of sexuality as heterosexuality. Though the theories of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty led to the radical overturning of both Platonic and then Cartesian dualism that had gendered subjectivity for centuries, the examples used in their philosophical treatises point to a traditional conception of sexuality subtly at work.

Utilizing an existentialist framework, French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) presents a developed account of how woman has been conceived of as other. Beauvoir's work demonstrates how a theory such as existentialism, though not itself concerned with gender, can be applied to discussions of sex and sexuality. Though radical in the way it challenges European and North American conceptions of gender, Beauvoir's philosophical project repeats many of the same themes. On the one hand, Beauvoir investigates the sustained treatment of woman as other—the second sex—to the male subject. On the other hand, her response to this conception replicates many of the same flaws found in Plato's theory and again in modernity: Women can transcend their bodies and participate in the world of the mind, but it means leaving behind or subordinating behaviors that are closely associated with women. In particular, childbearing, childrearing, and marriage are treated negatively. To be fair to Beauvoir, however, the context in which she is writing must be acknowledged. Adequate birth control was not available, marriage laws were confining if not outright oppressive, and good childcare was not readily available. Women were often forced to choose between careers and childrearing, not because of any metaphysical definition of themselves but because of the social, political, and legal context in which they lived. It should also be noted that H. M. Parshley's English translation of The Second Sex (1949) is not faithful to the original French in significant ways. The influence of the English translation led to widespread interpretation of Beauvoir as unsympathetic to women and the choices they made.

Inflecting phenomenology with a Jewish accent, Lithuanian philosopher Emmanuel Levinas (1906–1995) provided yet another conception of human subjectivity, one which inverted the subject-other relationship. Influenced by the German Jewish philosopher, Franz Rosenzweig (1886–1929), Levinas claimed that human subjectivity arises in ethical response to the other. This reformulation of subjectivity challenged traditional gender roles by elevating ethical response to the other over the Enlightenment values of freedom, autonomy, and rationality. This reformulation utilizes the conception of the feminine as other, but in this project, the other is accorded a privileged position. Levinas presents the feminine in three distinct manifestations. In Time and the Other (1947) the feminine inaugurates the experience of alterity. In Totality and Infinity (1961), the feminine is conceived as hospitable and welcoming. Finally in Otherwise than Being (1974), the feminine is reconceived in the image of maternity, which he calls the ethical relation par excellence.

Levinas's ethical project transformed philosophy's relationship to otherness. Noting this transformation, feminist theorists such as Irigaray and Tina Chanter offer nuanced readings of Levinas's use of the feminine and the implications for gender and sexuality. Despite the privileged position of the other, these scholars argue that Levinas maintains the feminine stereotypes that proved so dangerous. Scholars of Jewish philosophy, such as Leora Batnitzky, while noting these concerns, also emphasize the influence of Judaism on Levinas's philosophical thought and how this can contribute to a positive reformulation of women and gender. Values such as dependence and vulnerability, associated with women by European and North American philosophy, are seen in Judaism as human values, and signs of humanity itself.

The late-twentieth century French philosopher Michel Foucault (1926–1984) radically departs from the philosophical systems that preceded him. Foucault's contribution to the discussion of sexuality and gender is not a critique of gender roles and attitudes per se—rationality versus the body. Instead Foucault analyzes the very way that the discussion develops. In The History of Sexuality (1976–1984), he reveals the power structures that control discourse on sexuality, in particular those surrounding sexual repression. He is less interested in what has been said about sexuality than he is in who has said it, how they said it, in what context they said it, and what has not been said. Foucault's primary interest lies in the production of knowledge and power, which he believes are intertwined. The genealogical method employed for his exploration of the history of sexuality radically influenced how twentieth and twenty-first century philosophy examines historical claims to power, truth, and the normative practices in which people engage. The application of this methodology to gender has proved productive for uncovering how discourse on birth control, abortion, marriage, prostitution, and so forth lies in certain premises that are uncritically accepted with particular historical presuppositions.

Feminist responses to mind-body distinction varied widely even though they did not contest the distinction itself. One line of response claimed that women were just like men and could aspire to the same rational capacities even if that meant transcending their bodily identities. A converse response was to claim that women were in fact different from men and that these differences should themselves be valued. It was not until the mid-nineteenth century and well into the twentieth century that philosophy offered a critical analysis of the received view of human existence and the mind-body distinction itself. Early twenty-first century feminist scholarship reveals the history of European and North American philosophy to be more complex with regard to the mind-body distinction and philosophy's attitudes towards sexuality and gender than has previously been assumed. Although feminist inquiries reveal a pattern of misogyny, it is difficult to reject the values of the Enlightenment in their entirety. However twentieth century European philosophy, which includes phenomenology, existentialism, deconstruction, post-structuralism, and critical theory, provided a new way for thinking about philosophy with regard to sex, gender, and sexuality.

see also Philosophy, Feminist.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allen, Prudence. 1997. The Concept of Woman. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.

Aquinas, Thomas. 1997. "De Ente et Essentia." The Medieval Sourcebook, trans Robert T. Miller. Available from http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/aquinas-esse.html.

Aristotle. 1984. Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Augustine. 1893. "On Marriage and Concupiscence." The Medieval Sourcebook. Available from http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/aug-marr.html.

Batnitzky, Leora. 2004. "Dependence and Vulnerability: Jewish and Feminist Existentialist Constructions of the Human." In Women and Gender in Jewish Philosophy, ed. Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, 127-152. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Beauvoir, Simone de. 1953. The Second Sex, trans. H. M Parshley. New York: Knopf.

Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.

Chanter, Tina. 1995. The Ethics of Eros: Irigaray's Re-Writing of the Philosophers. London: New York and Routledge.

Foucault, Michel. 1990. The History of Sexuality. 3 vols. New York: Vintage.

Gilligan, Carol. 1993. In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Hegel, G. W. F. 1977. Phenomenology of Spirit, trans. A. V. Miller, analysis of the text and foreword by J. N. Findlay. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.

Hegel, G. W. F. 1991. Elements of the Philosophy of Right, trans. H. B. Nisbet. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Husserl, Edmund. 1977. Cartesian Meditations: An Introduction to Phenomenology, trans. Dorian Cairns. Berlin: Springer.

Irigaray, Luce. 1985. Speculum of the Other Woman, trans. Gillian C. Gill. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Kant, Immanuel. 1784. "What is Enlightenment?" Available from http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/kant-whatis.html.

Katz, Claire Elise. 2003. Levinas, Judaism, and the Feminine: The Silent Footsteps of Rebecca. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Levinas, Emmanuel. 1946. Time and the Other and Additional Essays, trans. Richard A. Cohen. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press.

Levinas, Emmanuel. 1961. Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority, trans. Alphonso Lingis. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press.

Levinas, Emmanuel. 1974. Otherwise Than Being, or Beyond Essence, trans. Alphonso Lingis. Hague, Netherlands: Nijhoff.

Levinas, Emmanuel. 1990. "Judaism and the Feminine." In Difficult Freedom: Essays on Judaism, trans. Seán Hand. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Lewisohn, Leonard. 1998. "Private Discipline." In Windows on the House of Islam: Muslim Sources on Spirituality and Religious Life, ed. John Renard. Berkeley: University of California Press. Available from http://arabworld.nitle.org.

Lloyd, Genevieve. 1993. The Man of Reason: "Male" and "Female" in Western Philosophy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. 1995. The Phenomenology of Perception, trans. Colin Smith New York: Routledge.

Pagels, Elaine. 1989. Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. New York: Vintage.

Pessin, Sarah. 2004. "Loss, Presence, and Gabirol's Desire: Medieval Jewish Philosophy and the Possibility of a Feminist Ground." In Women and Gender in Jewish Philosophy, ed. Hava Tirosh-Samuelson. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Plato. 1963. The Collected Dialogues of Plato: Including the Letters, ed. Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1911. Emile, or On Education, trans. Barbara Foxley. London: J. M. Dent and Sons. (Orig. pub. 1762.)

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. "A Discourse Upon the Origin and Foundation of Inequality among Mankind." Available from http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1782rousseauinequal.html.

Spelman, Elizabeth V. 1982. "Woman as Body: Ancient and Contemporary Views." Feminist Studies 8(1): 109-131.

Tirosh-Samuelson, Hava. 2004. Women and Gender in Jewish Philosophy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

                                            Claire Katz