Far too long, women have been underrepresented in the philosophy of science. Fortunately, things have improved during the last decades: The fraction of female researchers in the field has grown, and there are now a number of well-known women philosophers who address philosophical issues about the sciences and bring new perspectives to the discipline; their names are too well-known to be mentioned here.

In the German-speaking world, Grete Henry-Hermann was a pioneer among female philosophers of science. After completing her doctorate in mathematics with Emmy Noether in Göttingen, she turned to philosophy of science in the Kantian tradition, as further developed by Jakob Friedrich Fries, Ernst Friedrich Apelt and Leonard Nelson. Her main interest was in the then new field of quantum mechanics. Reminiscences of Henry-Hermann’s intensive discussions on this topic with the pioneers of the field can be found in Werner Heisenberg’s Der Teil und das Ganze.Footnote 1

This issue of JGPS features a Special Section that is meant to remind us of Henry-Hermann’s contributions to the philosophy of science and to make them more widely known. The format of the Special Section is somewhat unusual for JGPS: It consists of essay reviews of two recent books on Henry-Hermann, one edited by Kay Herrmann, the other edited by Elise Crull and Guido Bacciagaluppi. The essay reviews are accompanied by translations of three short essays by Henry-Hermann, which are not yet available in English. The Editors of JGPS would like to thank Guido Bacciagaluppi for suggesting this Special Section and for translating her essays into English. We hope that the Special Section will contribute to a better appreciation of Grete Henry-Hermann’s work.

Bern, Bochum and Hannover, October 31, 2020

Claus Beisbart, Helmut Pulte and Thomas Reydon