Socratic Women II: Activism, Feminism, Political Philosophy, and Religion

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

Can Socrates be a woman? In this stream of panels, we consider why Russian-language philosophical traditions have produced dozens of representations of Socrates, but not a single Diotima of Mantinea, from whom Socrates claimed to have learned the art of eros (in the Symposium), or an Aspasia of Miletus, from whom Socrates said he learned the art of rhetoric (in the Menexenus). Contributors will explore the image of Socrates in women’s writing and philosophical reflection, as well as figures of female Socrateses, both literally and figuratively, in Russian, Soviet, and East European intellectual history.

This session, the second of three in the “Socratic Women” stream, includes contributions on political theorists, theologians, and activists like Vera Zasulich, Nadezhda Krupskaya, Rachel Bespaloff, Myrrha Lot-Borodine, and Elisabeth Behr-Sigel.

Sub Unit

• Religion, Philosophy

Chair

• Laura Schlosberg, Stanford U

Roundtable Speakers

• Diana Dukhanova, College of the Holy Cross

• Isabel Jacobs, Czech Academy of Sciences (Czech Republic)

• Daniela Steila, U of Turin (Italy)