Women Thinkers in Antiquity and the Middle Ages - SD Peter Adamson

A look at letters ascribed to early female Pythagoreans and a discussion of Diotima and Aspasia, who appear as speakers in Plato’s dialogues Symposium and Menexenus.

To better understand the context within which ancient and medieval women lived and thought, we examine ideas about women in Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Ethics and Politics.

A number of late antique texts depict women engaged in philosophical debate, including the pagan martyr, mathematician, and philosopher Hypatia, Macrina, depicted on her deathbed discoursing on the immortality of the soul, and Augustine’s mother Monica.

We turn from ancient European culture to ancient India, and discuss the presentation of women sages in the Upanisads and a passage of the Mahabharata, in which a female mystic named Sulabha refutes a king’s pretensions to wisdom.

The role of women intellectuals in Islam, focusing on the medieval period: the role of women in transmitting religious knowledge, and the achievements of female mystics (Sufis) like Rabi‘a.

Two great women philosophers of the twelfth century: Heloise, the student and lover of Peter Abelard, and the visionary mystic and natural philosopher Hildegard of Bingen.