15/10/2026
📍University of Technology Nuremberg (UTN)
📅October 21, 2026
Prof. Dr. Ruth Edith Hagengruber, Director of the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists (HWPS) and President of the German Society for Philosophy (DGPhil), will give a lecture as part of the Research Seminar organized by the Early Modern Research Group at the University of Technology Nuremberg (UTN), led by Prof. Dr. Dana Jalobeanu. Further information: https://www.utn.de/en/departments/department-liberal-arts-and-social-sciences/early-modern/
Abstract:
This lecture offers a survey of three centuries, from approximately 1450 to 1750, focusing on some of the most significant and challenging contributions made by women philosophers during the early modern period.Recovering these philosophers does more than add previously neglected figures to an established canon. Their works invite us to reconsider how the history of early modern philosophy has been constructed, which questions and intellectual traditions have been regarded as central, and whose contributions have shaped its development.
Drawing on examples from philosophy, science, religion, politics, and theories of knowledge, the lecture will show how women participated in—and sometimes transformed—the major intellectual debates of their time. Taking their writings seriously therefore changes both the history we tell and our understanding of what early modern philosophy was about, how it developed, and by whom it was written.
The lecture will conclude by asking what this rediscovery means for the way we research and teach the history of philosophy today.
For those interested in learning more about the topic before the lecture, we recommend the following Springer Nature reference work: https://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007/978-3-319-31069-5
