The Palgrave Handbook of German Idealism and Feminist Philosophy

This book gives a comprehensive overview of the ways in which the relation between German Idealism and feminist philosophy has been explored. It demonstrates the significance of German Idealism for feminist philosophy, and simultaneously brings out the relevance of feminist readings and interpretations for a critical understanding of German Idealism.

Key Features:

•             Presents original work on the German Idealists and considers their legacy within feminist thought from different philosophical perspectives.

•             Challenges the epistemic boundaries of philosophy by engaging the thought of women contemporary with the German Idealists such as Bettina von Arnim and Karoline von Günderrode.

•             Places the work of the German Idealists on gender, sexuality, marriage and family within the wider contexts of colonialism and European nation building.

•             Considers how several key concepts of German Idealism (such as subject, reason, enlightenment, autonomy and the sublime) have been central targets of feminist theory.

•             Includes a Black feminist critique of Kantian universalism.

Fully reflecting the diversity that characterizes feminist thinking today, The Palgrave Handbook of German Idealism and Feminist Philosophy is essential reading for scholars and graduate students of German idealism, feminist philosophy and feminist theory.

Chapter(s) “The Taxonomy of ‘Race’ and the Anthropology of Sex: Conceptual Determination and Social Presumption in Kant” is/are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

• German Idealism
• Feminism
• Kant
• Hegel
• Fichte
• Schelling

• Institute for Philosophy, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

  Susanne Lettow

• Gender Studies, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

  Tuija Pulkkinen

Susanne Lettow is Senior Researcher at the Margherita-von-Brentano-Center for Gender Studies and teaches philosophy at Freie Universität Berlin. Her research focuses on classical philosophy from German Idealism to Heidegger, feminist philosophy, gender studies, history and theory of biopolitics, critical social philosophy, environmental humanities.

Tuija Pulkkinen is Professor of Gender Studies at the University of Helsinki. Her research areas include German Idealism, 20th century French philosophy, political theory, the history of concepts, and the politics of philosophy in contemporary feminist theory. She also works on the history of feminist thought and gender studies.   

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