On the forgotten thinkers - Geertje Bol in TLS:

‘Eileen O’Neill’s foundational article “Disappearing Ink: Early modern women philosophers and their fate in history” (1998) was revelatory for me as a graduate student. Her self-professed aim in writing it was to “overwhelm you with the presence of women in early modern philosophy”. Based on painstaking archival research, O’Neill discussed a vast amount of early modern women who published philosophical tracts and contributed to philosophical debates.
Suddenly, all my years of studying Great White Men seemed not only unfortunate but also, as O’Neill put it, “scandalous”.’

(…)

‘Ostertag notes that O’Neill’s work went a long way to making “the study of women philosophers … mainstream”. It is certainly undeniable that her efforts put many women philosophers on the map and, crucially, made it impossible to use the “there were no women philosophers” excuse for an exclusively male canon. Through her tireless archival work, she also made the study of past women easier for other scholars. As her colleagues Christia Mercer and Louise Antony affirm, “all feminist philosophers owe O’Neill an enormous debt”.’

(…)

‘In the words of the professor of gender studies Meaghan Morris, what is there “to be gained by inscribing” past women’s thought “under the ancient sign, ‘philosophy’”? Is the insistence on the label of philosophy helpful for the inclusion and study of past women’s ideas? In his introduction to Disappearing Ink, Ostertag paraphrases O’Neill’s reply to Morris as follows: only in “uniting beneath [the] standard” of philosophy can women “reclaim their rightful place in philosophy”. Ironically, this response reinforces the idea that philosophy is the only valid site of intellectual value – an idea responsible for the erasure of women from philosophy in the first place.’

Read the review here.

Where does the philosophy end and where is it exactly that others endeavors of intellectual labor begin? Perhaps the overestimation of philosophy (in some circles) is also a fallacy of romanticism and other sorts of nostalgia. There was a time that intellectual competition was a first and foremost competition for philosophers and scribes.

The scribes and the philosophers have moved to the periphery; the novelists have moved in the same direction.

The center is something for influencers.