Why are only male philosophers widely known?

One Answer

1. For the same reason as in the case of physicists, mathematicians, composers – for thousands of years, women simply have not been taught this, and even now a woman trying to get such an education is looked down upon “where are you going, we haven't taught such people here for thousands of years”. However, there are well-known female philosophers. Among others – my personal favorite case of Hipparchia:

   Fascinated by Kratet and his philosophy, she threatened her parents with suicide if they did not pass her off as Kratet.

   One day, when Hipparchia appeared at a feast to Lysimachus, she crushed Theodore the Atheist himself (Theodore of Cyrene, Cyrenaicus, a disciple of Aristippus) with this sophism: if there is no evil in something when Theodore does it, then there is no evil in it when Hipparchia does it; when Theodore beats Theodore, there is no evil in it, so when Hipparchia beats Theodore, there is no evil in it either. Theodore found no objection to this, and when Hipparchia cracked him, he only tore her cloak. Then, when he quoted a line from Euripides 'Bacchae:” Here she is, leaving her loom and her shuttle!”, she replied: “Yes, it is I, Theodore; but do you think I thought it wrong to waste my time not on the loom and shuttle, but instead on education?”

   Well, and the world-famous Hannah Arendt, a researcher of Nazism. I also deliberately avoid a whole galaxy of philosophers who have worked on women's rights issues-from Walsoncraft to Butler, with an intermediate stop at de Beauvoir.

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