PHIL 50-01: THE HISTORY OF WESTERN WOMEN PHILOSOPHERS

TIME LINE:
THE WESTERN PHILOSOPHICAL TRADITION
AND WOMEN PHILOSOPHERS
KAREN J. WARREN

 

School of Athens

600 BC-500AD: Ancient Period (Greece and Rome)
500-1500: Medieval, Renaissance, and Enlightenment Period
1600-1900: Modern Period
1900-Present: Contemporary Period

600 BC-500AD: Ancient Period (Greece and Rome)
Men Philosophers
(Dates)
Women Philosophers
(Dates)
Pre-Socratics:      

Milesians:

  • Thales
  • Anaximander
  • Anaximenes
 ca. 600 BC

Painting Depicting the Death of Socrates

  
Early Pythagoreans:
  • Pythagoras

ca. 600 BC

 
  • Early Pythagoreans:
    • Themiostoclea (the Priestess at Delphi)
    • Theano I
    • Arignote
    • Myia
    • Damo
 ca. 600 BC
  • Heraclitus

 ca. 600 BC    
Eleatics:
  • Xenophanes
  • Parmenides
  • Zeno of Elea
ca. 500 BC

Plato and Student

  
  • Empedocles
 ca. 500 BC    
  • Anaxagoras

 ca. 500 BC    
Atomists:
  • Leucippus (founder)
  • Democritus (later than Socrates)
ca. 500 BC    
Sophists:   Cleobulina of Rhodes ca. 500 BC
  • Protagoras
  • Prodicus
  • Hippias
  • Gorgias
 ca. 400 BC    
Late Pythagoreans ca. 400-300 BC

Late Pythagoreans:

  • Phintys
  • Aesara of Luciana
  • Perictione
  • (possibly) Perictione II
  • Theano II
 ca. 300-100 BC

Socrates

 470-399 BC
Aspasia of Miletus
 ca. 400 BC

Plato

428/7-348/7

BC

Diotima of Mantinea

 

 ca. 400 BC

Aristotle

384/3-322/1

BC

Axiothea of Philasia

Hipparchia

Lasthenia of Mantinea

Arete of Cyrene

 ca. 300 BC
Stoics:      
  • Zeno of Citium (founder)
  • Senecca (later Stoic)
  • Epictetus (later Stoic)
  • Marcus Aurelius (later Stoic)

Early Stoics: ca. 300 BC

Later Stoics: ca. 100 AD

 

    
Epicureans:      
  • Epicurus

  • Lucretius
 ca. 300 BC    
Cynics, Eclectics, Sceptics ca. 100 BC-300 AD

Julia Domna
("the philosopher Julia")

 170-217 AD

Neo-Platonists:

  

 

Julia Domna Coins 

  
  • Plutarch
  • Plotinus

b. 45 AD

204/3-269/70 AD

    
Early Christian Philosophers (Pre-Medieval):  

Makrina

Asclepigenia of Athens

Hypatia of Alexandria

(Makrina)
ca. 300 AD

(Asclepi-
genia)
ca. 400 AD

(Hypatia)
b. ca. 370-5

  • St. Augustine
  • Boethius

354-430 AD

480-524/5 AD

 



Sappho

Sappho Statue
  


500-1500: Medieval, Renaissance, and Enlightenment Period
Men Philosophers
(Dates)
Women Philosophers
(Dates)
   

Roswitha of Gandersheim

[Murasaki Shikibu]

935-1001

970-1031

St. Anselm of Canterbury

 1033-1109

Hildegard of Bingen

Herrad of Hohenbourg (also, of Landsburg)

(Hildegard)
1098-1191

Pierre Abelard

 1079-1142

Heloise

Heloise and Abelard

 1100/1-64
Averroes 1126-98    

St. Bonaventure (John of Fidanza)  

 1221-1245 Beatrice of Nazareth 1200-1268

St. Thomas Aquinas

 1224/5-1274

Mechtild of Magdeburg

Hadewych of Antwerp

(Mechtild)
1207-1282

(Hadewych)
?prior to 1260

John Duns Scotus

 1265/6-1308 Birgitta of Sweden 1302-73

William of Ockham

b. 1290-1300

d. 1349

Julian of Norwich

Christine de Pisan

(Julia)
1342-1417

(de Pisan)
1347-80
Mystics:   Mystics:  
  • Master Eckhart

 1260-1327

  • St. Catherine of Sienna
  • St. Catherine of Bologna
  • St. Catherine of Genoa

(of Sienna)
1347-1380

(of Bologna)
1413-1463

(of Genoa)
1447-1510
Erasmus 1467-1536

Marguerite of Navarre

 

 *

Nicollo Machiavelli

 1469-1527 Margaret More Roper ca. 1506-44

Michel de Montaigne

 1533-92

Teresa of Avila

 1515-82

Francis Suarez

1548-1617

Oliva Sabuco de Nantes Barrera

Marie Le Jars de Gournay

1562-*;

1565-1645


Medieval Women

1550-1900: Modern Period
Men Philosophers
(Dates)
Women Philosophers
(Dates)
  • British Empiricists:
  
  • Defenders and Critics of Locke
  
  • Francis Bacon

  • Thomas Hobbes
  • John Locke
  • George Berkeley
  • David Hume
  • Thomas Reid

(Bacon)
1562-1626

(Hobbes)
1588-1679

(Locke)
1632-1704

(Berkeley)
1685-1753

(Hume)
1711-1776

(Reid)
1710-1796

 
  • Anna Maria Van Schurman
  • Bathsua Pell Makin
  • Damaris Cudworth Masham
  • Mary Astell
  • Catherine Trotter Cockburn

(Schurman)
1607-78

(Makin)
fl. 1612

(Cudworth)
1659-1708

(Astell)
1666-1731

(Cockburn)
1679-1749
  • Continental Rationalists:
  
  • Metaphysics:
  
Rene Descartes

Blaise Pascal

 

Baruch Spinoza

Nicolas Malbranche

    G.W. Leibniz

(Descartes) 1596-1650

(Pascal) 1623-1662

(Spinoza)
1632-1677

(Mal-
branche)
1638-1715

(Leibniz)
1646-1716
  • Madame de Sable
  • Elizabeth of Bohemia
  • Helena Cornaro Piscopia
  • Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle
  • Anne Finch, Viscountess Conway
  • Emilie du Chatelet
  • Laura Bassi

 

(Sable)
1599-1678

(Elizabeth)
1618-80

(Piscopia)
1646-84

(Cavendish)
1623-73

(Finch)
1631-79

(Chatelet)
1706-49

(Bassi)
1711-78

 
French Enlightenment:   Philosophy of Religion:  
  • Pierre Bayle
  • Montesquieu
  • Voltaire
  • Diderot
  • Rousseau

(Bayle)
1647-1706

(Montes-
quieu)
1789-1755

(Voltaire)
1694-1708

(Diderot)
1713-84

(Rousseau) 1712-78

  • Kristina Wasa, Queen of Sweden
  • Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz

(Kristina)
1626-89

(Inez)
1648-95
German Enlightenment:   On Education:  
  • Mendelsohn

  • Lessing

(Mendel-
sohn)
1729-86

(Lessing) 1729-1781
  • "Sophia"
  • Catherine Macaulay (Graham)
  • Olympe de Gouges
  • Mary Wollstonecraft
  • Jenny Poinsard d'Hericourt

(Sophia)
fl. 1739

(Macaulay)
1731-91

(Gouges)
1748-93

(Wollstone-craft)
1759-97

(d'Hericourt)
1809-75

Immanuel Kant

 1724-1804

Mary Sommerville


 1780-1872
Post-Kantian German Idealism:      

J.G. Fichte

F. von Schelling

F. Schleirmacher

      J. Gottlieb Frege

      G.W.F. Hegel

 

(Fichte)
1762-1814

 

(Schelling) 1775-1854

 

(Schleir-macher)
1768-1834

 

 

 

(Frege)
1768-1834

 

 

 

(Hegel)
1770-1831

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Utilitarianism:   Social and Political Philosophy:  
  • Jeremy Bentham
  • John Stuart Mill
  • Henry Sidgwick

(Bentham)
1748-1832

(Mill)
1806-1873

(Sidgwick)
1838-1900
  • Madame de Condorcet
  • Anna Doyle Wheeler
  • Catherine Ward Beecher
  • Harriet Taylor Mill

 

 

(Condorcet)
1764-1822

(Wheller)
1785-1848

(Beecher)
1800-1878

(Taylor Mill)
1807-1858

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arthur Schopenhauer

 1788-1860

George Elliot

Juliette Lambert Adam
Julie Velten Favre
Antoinette Brown Blackwell

 

(Elliot)
1819-1880

(Adam)
1836-1936

(Favre)
1834-1896

(Blackwell)
1825-1921

Soren Kierkegaard

 1813-55 Clemence Royer 1830-1930

Karl Marx

 1818-83    

Franz Brentano

 1838-1917    

Friedrich Nietzsche

 

 1844-1900 Lou Salome 1861-1937
Social Philosophy in France:      
  • Chateaubriand
  • Maine de Biran
  • Francois Fourier
  • Saint Simon
  • Auguste Comte

  • Henri Bergson
  • Emile Durkheim

(Chateau-briand)
1768-1848

(de Biran)
1766-1824

(Fourier)
1772-1837

(Simon)
1760-1825

(Comte)
1798-1855

(Bergson)
1859-1941

(Durkheim)
1858-1917
  • Harriet Martineau (on Comte)
  • Clarisse Coignet

1802-76

b. 1823

American Pragmatists

(See next chart)

 1850's-Present
  • Christine Ladd Franklin
  • Hortense Allart de Meritens

(Franklin)
1847-1930

(Meritens)
fl. 1850

1900-Present: Contemporary Period
Men Philosophers
(Dates)
Women Philosophers
(Dates)
American Pragmatists:      
  • Josiah Royce

  • Charles Peirce
  • William James
  • Francis Bradley
  • John Dewey

(Royce)
1855-1916

(Peirce)
1839-1914

(James)
1842-1910

(Bradley) 1846-1924

(Dewey)
1859-1952

 
  • Edna Dow Cheney
  • Anna Julia Cooper
  • Mary Whiton Calkins
  • Victoria, Lady Welby
  • Charlotte Perkins Gilman

(Dow)
1824-1904

(Cooper)
1858-19*

(Calkins)
1863-1930

(Lady Welby)
1837-1912

(Perkins)
1860-1935
French Thomists:      
  • Jacques Maritain
  • Etienne Gilson

1882-1973

1884-1978

 

    
French Philosophy of Science/Mathematics:      
  • Henri Poincare
 1854-1912    

A.N. Whitehead

 1861-1947 Lizzie Susan Stebbing 1885-1943
Bertrand Russell
 1872-1970 E.E. Constance Jones 1848-1922

G.E. Moore

 1873-1958 Edith Stein 1891-1942

Teilhard de Chardin

 1881-1955 Gerder Walther 1897-1977
   

Ayn Rand

1905-82
Existentialists:   Cornelia Johanna De Vogel 1905-86
  • Karl Jaspers

  • Martin Heidegger
  • Jean-Paul Sartre
  • Albert Camus

1883-1969

1889-1976

1905-*

1913-60

Hannah Arendt

Simone de Beauvoir

Simone Weil

(Arendt)
1906-75

(de Beauvoir)
1908-86

(Weil)
1909-43
Phenomenologists:      
  • Edmund Husserl
  • Merleau-Ponty
  • Michel Foucault

(Husserl)
1859-1938

(Merleau-
Ponty)
1908-1961

(Foucault)
1926-1984

   

Ludwig Wittgenstein

 1889-1951 G.E.M. Anscombe *
Logical Positivists:  

Susanne Langer

1895-
  • Rudolph Carnap
  • A.J. Ayer

1891-1970

1910-1989

    
Willard Van Orman Quine
 * Alice Ambrose 1906-
Neo-Thomists:
  

Iris Murdoch

 1919-99

Gilbert Ryle

 1900-76

Angela Davis

1944-

John Rawls

 1921-

Helen Cixious 


Mary Daly

Sandra Harding
bell hooks


Lucy Irigaray

Kristeva

Mary Midgley

Martha Nussbaum

 

  

Return to course description for The History of Western Women Philosophers
For a more comprehensive list of leading women philosophers, especially since 1900, see KJ Warren's Introduction.
Return to KJ Warren's Index of Courses.

Return to KJ Warren's web page.