Thammasat University students who are interested in philosophy, gender studies, intellectual history and related subjects may find a new Open Access book available for free download useful.
Purple Brains: Feminisms at the Limits of Philosophy is by Dr. Annabelle Dufourcq and others.
The TU Library collection includes many books about different aspects of feminist philosophy.
Associate Professor Annabelle Dufourcq teaches philosophy at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Her online faculty biography notes that she is
currently associate professor of metaphysics and philosophical anthropology and coordinator of the CCEP (Center for Contemporary European Philosophy) at the Faculty of Philosophy, Theology, and Religious Studies, Radboud University. She is Socrates Professor by special appointment in Humanistic Philosophy, on the relationship between humans and nature, at Wageningen University. Her areas of expertise are: Phenomenology, Existentialism, Contemporary Continental Philosophy, Philosophy of Imagination and the Imaginary, Ontology, Eco-phenomenology, and Animal Studies. […] In 2022, She received the Radboud Science Award for her research on the relationship between the human imagination and the imaginative capacities of non-human animals.
Her book may be downloaded free at this link:
https://radbouduniversitypress.nl/site/books/e/10.54195/HSOV8373/
The publisher’s description explains:
Feminist philosophy seems to always exceed its own limits – it is dynamic, shifting, and in dialogue with other academic disciplines. The adjective “feminist” marks not so much a specific subfield of philosophy or topic that is studied, but a political sensibility, an engagement in practicing philosophy. The playful title ‘Purple Brains’ indicates a thinking that goes beyond established binaries, notably the gender binary signified by the colors pink and blue.
As feminists, we face the challenge of finding our own place and inventing ways to understand and overcome discrimination and exclusion. Situated within a world we want to change, feminists cannot afford to reject unlikely interlocutors out of hand, but must instead engage in interdisciplinary, intergenerational and cross-fertilizing dialogues.
This volume brings together 19 articles that practice feminist philosophy through an engagement with the work of Dutch philosopher Veronica Vasterling. As one of the pioneering women philosophers active in Dutch academia since the mid-1980s, Vasterling explicitly expanded her outlook to embrace feminist themes and authors. She stands out as a prominent figure in the exploration of the boundaries of feminism through critical dialogue across multiple perspectives. Her work not only explores neuropsychology through a feminist lens but also extends into domains such as critical phenomenology of gender and race, critical hermeneutics, and subjects including sexual difference, the philosophical oeuvre of Hannah Arendt, and that of Judith Butler.
From the book’s introduction:
Over the past four decades, and particularly from the 1990s onwards, an increasing number of women have entered the realm of academic philosophy – a domain hitherto predominantly inhabited by white males. It is no coincidence that since that time situatedness, body, emotion, and the link with literature as a source for hermeneutic and practical philosophy became important themes. Other ways women philosophers influenced the discipline was by introducing authors, such as Arendt and Beauvoir, into the philosophical canon, and critically rereading the canon, articulating thoughts and views of earlier philosophers that were backing their new perspectives.
Although feminist approaches found a foothold within the field, they also encountered hostility and resistance. Many feminist philosophers have reflected upon these hostilities, often characterized by a dismissal of feminist approaches as philosophy proper (“yes, that is interesting – but it is not philosophy!”). Veronica Vasterling notes: “For example, in 2000, people still thought Beauvoir was not a philosopher. Arendt was also seen as a maverick at the time because of her narrative writing style, and her use of many different sources.”5 Since then, things have slowly improved.
Students became interested in the work of female and feminist philosophers, and female – and some male – philosophers started to teach on Beauvoir, Arendt, Butler, and Nussbaum.
Over the years, feminist philosophy has gained recognition as a field in its own right. But what exactly characterizes that field is not so easy to define or pin down. Feminist philosophy seems to always exceed its own limits – it is dynamic, shifting, and in dialogue with other academic disciplines. The – controversial – adjective “feminist” marks not so much a specific subfield of philosophy or topic that is studied, but instead designates a specific sensibility – an orientation or approach to practicing philosophy. A feminist lens can – and should – be brought to bear on any philosophical topic. But what this feminist lens then consists of and how it is mobilized is not self-evident or uncontested. Many may agree that it departs from a critique of hegemonic norms and oppressive power structures and aims towards changing society and creating a more just world. But what that means and how to practice it may mean something different for different people. For instance, when it comes to gender: feminist philosophers share a critique of dominant societal understandings of gender, which are often highly biologizing and essentializing (the idea of “pink brains” that the title subverts). But it is heavily contested what feminist conception of gender to put in its place. How to keep open the concept of gender and how to not fall into the trap of giving another stable definition? And how to do so in a way that remains grounded in the messy and imperfect reality?
This volume embraces cross-fertilizing approaches as a legitimate method for feminism. The key to philosophy, Veronica Vasterling emphasized more than once, is “the matter” (de zaak): “If the matter requires you to explore areas with which you are not yet familiar, you are to follow its lead.” This dedication to the matter prioritizes experiences and issues we are struggling with, rather than fidelity to any one theoretical framework.
This unsettling commitment to the matter is crucial to understanding the fate of feminist thinkers, as well as the connection shown in this volume between feminist thought, phenomenology, and hermeneutics – philosophical schools that return to the matter itself and warn against idolizing a theory. Now, what is the matter at hand in this book? We are concerned with the difficulty of finding one’s place and the development of ways to understand and overcome discrimination and exclusion. Situated within a world we want to change, feminists cannot afford to reject out-of-hand unlikely interlocutors or to challenge interdisciplinary and intergenerational dialog. Such is the overarching approach that binds the 19 articles in this volume, as they engage in a dialogue with Veronica Vasterling’s work.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)