10-12-2025
Outside the Canon. Women Philosophers Teaching other Philosophers
María Elena García Peláez, Mariana Gardella, Mayra Huerta, Teresa Rodríguez and Valeria Sonna
URLThose professors were Mariana Gardella from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), Valeria Sonna and María Elena García Peláez Cruz from the Panamerican Unversity (UP), and Mayra Huerta and Teresa Rodríguez from UNAM. The first thing we thought was to continue studying before diving into more ambitious projects. So, we started a monthly online seminar, in which each of us would present a text that broadened our methodological horizons on the historiography of women philosophers or on a particular philosopher.
After a while, we thought that maybe we were ready for more challenging projects. The idea of offering courses at our respective universities then came up, and perhaps holding simultaneous sessions via Zoom. Valeria suggested that it be a COIL since she had experience with this type of initiative. “A COIL? What is that?”, some of us asked.
Conversation “Challenges for the study of women and the feminine in philosophical texts of Antiquity”
Imagen tomada de https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8UF07pbrkA
In addition to learning about methodology and philosophical historiography, we learned about international cooperation, online education, and inter-institutional coordination. We learned to go beyond our borders. After all, studying women philosophers is, besides questioning the prejudice that only men have philosophized and that they have done so alone, breaking down the wall that tells us philosophy is only done in certain countries, within certain spaces, in classrooms confined to bricks and concrete walls.
What if we taught at the same time, in Mexico and Argentina, about those women absent from the canonical histories of philosophy?
Finally, the course Women in the History of Philosophy: Methodological Issues and Case Analyses became a COIL seminar (Collaborative Online International Learning) jointly organized by three institutions: UBA, through the Graduate Studies Office of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters; UP, from its Faculty of Philosophy; and UNAM, through the Master’s and Doctoral Program in Philosophy.
Over the course of sixteen intensive sessions, held between August 11 and October 3, 2025, undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students discussed the methodological challenges involved in reconstructing and rethinking the history of philosophy from an inclusive perspective.
Coordinated by the aforementioned professors, the course offered a space for international reflection and learning around a central question: how has the history of philosophy been constructed, what are the implications of the fact that women have been systematically excluded from it, and under what criteria can we include them?
As we have seen, for multiple reasons and through different strategies, the history of philosophy has excluded women philosophers and has dismissed as a subject of reflection anything considered “feminine.” One of the biggest problems with this exclusion is that the philosophical tradition loses valuable ideas and is misled about the true complexity and richness of its own history. To reverse this trend, over the past four decades various studies on the thought of women philosophers have emerged, attributing the omission of their contributions in histories of philosophy published from the 18th century to today to sexism.
At the same time, these studies have formulated criticisms of the historiographical canon, questioning the assumptions with which the history of philosophy is written and the criteria that determine who is considered a philosopher. These criticisms have driven the continual revision of methodological strategies for inclusion, in order to prevent female philosophers from being subordinated to canonical male figures, traditionally seen as rational, systematic, complete, or brilliant.
The fact that each person had different learning backgrounds led to a dialogue and reflection that would not have been possible within the traditional four walls of our classrooms
The seminar’s purpose was to recover the relevant ideas of women in the intellectual history of their times, many of whom expressed themselves through non-traditional genres such as poetry, letters, or historical narratives.
The course aimed to study the contributions of some women philosophers from the ancient, Byzantine, and modern periods. To this end, we reviewed and applied methodological strategies to include women philosophers in the history of the discipline in five case studies: Aspasia, Hipparchia, the Pythagorean women, Anna Komnene, and Anne Finch (Conway) [see box]. Each case was approached through the reading and discussion of primary sources: testimonies, fragments, letters, and treatises.
Imagen tomada de https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8UF07pbrkA
To achieve this, we divided the seminar into six units: the first dedicated to methodological notions of philosophical historiography and the remaining five to case studies. Each unit was divided into two two-hour sessions during which the instructor, after presenting the topic, encouraged a discussion among students from the various institutions, leading to a questioning of the philosophical canon. The students’ questions were very insightful. The fact that each person had different learning backgrounds led to a dialogue and reflection that would not have been possible within the traditional four walls of our classrooms.
The course was taught in Spanish and completely online, with the participation of thirty-three officially enrolled students from the three universities. It is worth noting that UBA allows enrollment in its doctoral courses for students from other universities in Argentina or other Latin American countries, which is why we had students from the National University of Córdoba, the National University of the South, and the University of Costa Rica who enriched the course.
We decided to divide the students into seven teams that would carry out four practical activities. This culminated in the creation of deliverable products after reviewing the main topics of the course.
Philosophy is often conceived as a solitary activity: let us recall the mythical image of René Descartes discovering the cogito, the modern subject, in front of a stove, isolated from the external world. The students had to break the mold and cross boundaries to jointly think about how to dismantle philosophical narratives that exclude women and how to imagine new models of inclusion for women philosophers whose practices, from Antiquity to Modernity, do not fit the dominant narratives.
One of the main challenges was the interaction and coordination among students, necessary to carry out the team assignments that would be evaluated. They also had to coordinate different time zones, work methodologies, and academic experiences at various levels, as our COIL included undergraduate students in advanced stages (UP), master’s students (UNAM), and doctoral students (UBA and UNAM). It was a complex web that challenged everyone involved to seek creative solutions, but in the end, it represents one of the great advantages of our time: having shared a seminar among Latin American countries, thinking from a place philosophically excluded about equally excluded women philosophers.
Ilustration: Monserrat García Silva
Women Philosophers studied at the COIL
María Elena García Peláez, Mariana Gardella, Mayra Huerta, Teresa Rodríguez and Valeria Sonna
Aspasia lived in Athens during the 5th century b.c.e. ancient sources, some friendly, some hostile, show us multiple facets of her. Among the hostiles sources are the comedy playwrights Aristophanes and Cratinus, who pointed out Aspasia’s influence on Pericles. On his side, using an ironic tone, Plato painted her as Socrates’ teacher of rhetorics, while Aeschines, as told by Cicero, portraits her as an expert in argumentation through induction. Because of her multiple facets, reconstructing Aspasia’s figure and influence in political and intellectual circles of her time is a challenge for historians and historians of philosohy and of Greek Antiquity in general.
Hipparchia (circa 346-300 b.c.e.) was a philosopher born in Maronea. Her thought focused on ethics and the search of virtue through a self-sufficient and austere life. She challenged social conventions and was one of the few women in Ancient Greece that participated in public philosophical debates, defending women’s right to education and philosopher’s life, against traditional feminine chores.
The Pythagorean women philosophers were an ample group of women philosophers in which early Pythagoreans (VI and IV centuries b.c.e.) and Neopyithagoreans can be distinguished. From the early Pythagoreans we have indirect testimonies that bring biographical data and sentences. From the Neopyithagoreans 10 letters have been preserved (eight attributed to Theano, one to Mia, and the other to Melissa), and five treatises (On Piety, attributed to Theano; On Knowledge and On Women’s Harmony, by Perictione; On Woman’s Moderation, by Fintis; On Human Nature, by Aisara). These writings, considerd apocrypha, show these philosophers interest on metaphysical, epistemological, psychological, and ethical questions.
Anna Komnene was a princess from Byzantium, daughter of Emperor Alexios I of Constantinople. She wrote a history of his reign titled The Alexiad, a fundamental work in the reconstruction and documentation of the First Cruzade and of the life in the empire during the 10th and 11th centuries. Recent findings locate her as a copyist and intellectual in charge of a group of commentarists of philosophical works, seemingly part of a great philosophical-theological project, opening the way for considering Anna Kommene as a philosopher in a full sense.
Anne Finch Conway lived between 1631 and 1679. She was educated in the Platonic frame of Henry More at Cambridge. She wrote a treaty, The Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy, where she proposes her own metaphysical system, with a substantial monism for the natural world. She coined the term “monad” that later philosophers would take, especially Leibniz’s philosophy.
Mayra Huerta Paredes holds a Master’s and a Doctorate in Philosophy from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She was a professor at the College of Classical Letters, Faculty of Philosophy and Literature, and at the College of Philosophy of the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP). Her research focuses on Aristotelian metaphysics and methodologies for including ancient Greek women philosophers in the history of philosophy.
Valeria Sonna holds a Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Buenos Aires and is a member of Mexico’s National System of Researchers (SNII, SECIHTI). Born in Argentina and residing in Mexico, she has extensive teaching experience at universities in both countries, offering courses in areas such as the history of ancient philosophy, ethics, and philosophy and gender. Her research centers on the reception of ancient philosophy in contemporary thought and on the history of the philosophy of pregnancy and motherhood.
Mariana Gardella holds a Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Buenos Aires and is an Assistant Researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) of Argentina. She has conducted research stays in France, Canada, and Mexico (at the Institute for Philosophical Research of the UNAM). Her current research focuses on the study of women philosophers and poets of Antiquity.
María Elena García Peláez Cruz holds a Doctorate in Philosophy from the UNAM. She is a full-time professor-researcher at the School of Philosophy of the Panamerican University. Her studies have focused on Aristotelian biology, especially his reproductive theory from a gender perspective. Another line of her research is related to women of the Middle Ages, such as Macrina the Younger.
Teresa Rodríguez is a researcher at the Institute for Philosophical Research of the UNAM. The central theme of her research is the relationship of philosophy with its history. Her research focuses on women philosophers of the past, the Renaissance period, the history of Platonism, and the methodology of research in the history of philosophy. She has been an active participant in the Society for Women in Philosophy SWIP-Analytic Mexico and is a co-founder of the Latin American Network for the Study of Women Philosophers in History.
Valeria Sonna holds a Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Buenos Aires and is a member of Mexico’s National System of Researchers (SNII, SECIHTI). Born in Argentina and residing in Mexico, she has extensive teaching experience at universities in both countries, offering courses in areas such as the history of ancient philosophy, ethics, and philosophy and gender. Her research centers on the reception of ancient philosophy in contemporary thought and on the history of the philosophy of pregnancy and motherhood.
Mariana Gardella holds a Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Buenos Aires and is an Assistant Researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) of Argentina. She has conducted research stays in France, Canada, and Mexico (at the Institute for Philosophical Research of the UNAM). Her current research focuses on the study of women philosophers and poets of Antiquity.
María Elena García Peláez Cruz holds a Doctorate in Philosophy from the UNAM. She is a full-time professor-researcher at the School of Philosophy of the Panamerican University. Her studies have focused on Aristotelian biology, especially his reproductive theory from a gender perspective. Another line of her research is related to women of the Middle Ages, such as Macrina the Younger.
Teresa Rodríguez is a researcher at the Institute for Philosophical Research of the UNAM. The central theme of her research is the relationship of philosophy with its history. Her research focuses on women philosophers of the past, the Renaissance period, the history of Platonism, and the methodology of research in the history of philosophy. She has been an active participant in the Society for Women in Philosophy SWIP-Analytic Mexico and is a co-founder of the Latin American Network for the Study of Women Philosophers in History.
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