0:16

Hi. I'm Peter Adamson over into

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the history of philosophy podcast brought to you with

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the support of the philosophy department in King's College

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London and the LMU in Munich online

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at history philosophy dot net. Today's

0:28

episode, the tenth news,

0:30

Nave de Gournay. Philosophers

0:35

nowadays talk about epistemic injustice.

0:37

Which occurs when people are unfairly taken

0:40

to lack authority as sources of knowledge.

0:42

Miranda Fricker, who wrote the book that introduced

0:44

the term, gives the example of women in

0:47

corporate settings whose ideas and suggestions

0:49

are taken as less credible, simply because

0:51

they are women. Tricker tells of

0:53

one executive who, when she is at a meeting

0:55

and wants to make a suggestion about policy,

0:58

actually writes down the suggestion on a little piece

1:00

of paper, servitiously passes it to

1:02

a sympathetic nail calling, has him

1:04

make the suggestion, watches it be well

1:06

received, and then joins in the discussion from

1:08

there. Women living before

1:10

the age of the multinational corporation were

1:13

already well aware of the phenomenon even

1:15

if they didn't have a name for it. One

1:17

of the earliest clear statements of Epistemic Injustice,

1:20

I know, is found in the work of Marie Lejard

1:22

Desjardins. She notes that even

1:24

a woman with the wit of carnities a

1:27

leading skeptical philosopher of antiquity

1:29

will be ignored in conversation with a man.

1:32

With merely a smile or some slight shaking

1:34

of his head, His mute eloquence pronounces,

1:37

it's a woman speaking. This

1:39

passage actually occurs in two words by Gourmet.

1:42

It may be found in the de complaint,

1:44

which along with her equality of men and

1:46

women and apology for the woman

1:48

writing, all published in the sixteen forty

1:51

one edition of her collected works establishes

1:53

Gournay as a pioneering feminist, but

1:56

his parents there is a bit of a recycling

1:58

on her part because the remark was first

2:00

made in a lengthy preface to her fifteen

2:03

ninety five edition of Montana's essays.

2:06

With the blessing of Montana's widow, Guanee

2:08

included additional material beyond that

2:11

found in earlier editions. Her

2:13

expanded version was the standard one used

2:15

until eighteen o two when scholars

2:17

began to prefer the earlier fifteen eighty

2:19

eight edition augmented by Montana's handwritten

2:21

notes. Arguably, this

2:23

downgrading of edition was itself

2:26

a case of epistemic injustice since

2:28

she knew Montana well and might reasonably

2:31

be taken to be an authoritative source of knowledge

2:33

on his thought and on the text of the essays.

2:37

This same aspect of Gournay literary career

2:39

makes her pioneering in another sense.

2:41

She should certainly not be reduced to a mere

2:44

follower and literary executor of Montana.

2:46

Her collected works are more than a thousand pages

2:48

long and range widely in terms topic

2:51

and genre. But she does give us our

2:53

first example of a type that will become increasingly

2:55

familiar as we move forward in history. The

2:57

female philosopher whose renowned is secured

2:59

primarily. By being linked to famous

3:02

male philosopher. Later examples

3:04

will include Elizabeth of Bohemia and

3:06

Queen Sophie's Charlotte of Hanover.

3:09

Best known to historians of philosophy for their

3:11

correspondence with their cut and livelihoods respectively.

3:14

This is something we haven't really seen before.

3:16

Unless you count family relations like Makena,

3:19

the sister of Gregory of Nissa. We

3:21

did see how women humanists of the Italian

3:23

Renaissance deliberately sought to associate

3:25

themselves with prominent male humanists with

3:28

mixed success. In one case,

3:30

Izotha Novgorod was upset when

3:32

Guarimi ignored a letter

3:34

she sent him, and when she complained, had

3:36

to put up with De chastising her for

3:39

taking the snub so badly instead of

3:41

displaying a manly soul. Guinee

3:44

was considerably more successful in getting

3:46

people to think of her when they thought of Monet.

3:49

Their friendship began after her reading of the

3:51

essays in fifteen eighty two when she

3:53

was not yet twenty years old. Looking

3:55

back, she said that the book sent her into

3:58

ecstasy. It affected her

4:00

so deeply that her mother offered her a sedative.

4:03

Determined to meet the author of this magnificent

4:05

work, made contact with Montana,

4:08

visited him in Paris, later hosting

4:10

him for several months in Picardi. She

4:12

became his adoptive daughter, something she underscores

4:15

in the preface, constantly referring to

4:17

him as her father. She

4:19

is keen for the reader to understand that their closeness

4:22

did indeed make her a unique authority on

4:24

Montana. I alone, she

4:26

proclaims, was perfectly acquainted with that

4:28

great soul. Thus,

4:30

she can, for example, settle the controversy

4:32

as to his views on religion. Writing

4:35

the preface after Montana's death Gouné's

4:37

admiration for him remains undimmed. She

4:40

says, the language of the essays never

4:42

wheeys the reader except when it ceases

4:44

and everything about it is perfect, but it's

4:47

coming to an end. Nancy

4:49

proudly quotes the praise lavished on the book

4:51

by Epsius, adding that The

4:53

essays were unmatched for him. He imparting

4:56

they deserving the greatest honor. Ghanae

4:59

herself had a more mixed reputation. Lipsias

5:02

with whom she exchanged correspondence praised

5:04

her too, using the already well worn

5:06

trope that her intelligence exceeded the

5:08

normal bounds of humankind. Is

5:10

it possible that so keen in understanding and

5:13

so solid a judgment not to speak of

5:15

such wisdom and knowledge can be found in

5:17

one of your sex and in such times

5:19

as these? She was

5:21

called the tenth muse and after her

5:23

death, eulogized as both daughter to Montaglia

5:26

and sister to Epsias. But she

5:28

was also the target of sotirical mockery

5:31

as in a sixteen ten work called simply

5:33

the Antigone. One

5:35

point, pranksters tricked her into thinking that

5:37

the king of England was soliciting an autobiography

5:40

and portrait from her. Gournay,

5:42

not the sort to take such treatment with good humor,

5:44

suit them. In the end

5:46

though, it was the esteem of Montana that would have

5:49

meant the most to her and this she

5:51

certainly had. To judge by a passage

5:53

added to the original version of the essays.

5:55

In it, Montana calls Gournay

5:58

covenant daughter whom I love indeed more

6:00

than a daughter of my own and cherish in

6:02

my retirement and solitude as one of the best

6:04

parts of my own being. She is

6:06

the only person I still think about in this world.

6:09

If youthful promise means anything, her soul

6:11

will someday be capable of the finest things,

6:13

among others of perfection in that most sacred

6:16

kind of friendship, which so we read

6:18

her sex has not yet been able to attain.

6:22

Note here the echo of Montana's attitude towards

6:24

his brilliantly promising friend, La

6:26

Voite, and parallel Gournay

6:29

draws explicitly in the preface. The

6:31

insertion in the assays is under a cloud

6:33

of suspicion though. Scholars are

6:35

unsure whether Gournay herself may have

6:37

added it to burnish her own reputation. This

6:40

would be consistent with what has been termed

6:43

her readiness to convert his appreciation of

6:45

her into a vehicle for a self promotion.

6:48

And she did on occasion engage in literary

6:50

subterfuge. As when she published a revised

6:53

version of the works of the Payad poet,

6:55

Pierre Honsad, in which corrections

6:57

of her own were presented as stemming

6:59

from Honsad himself. Perhaps

7:02

Gaurais saw herself as being so close to the mind

7:04

of Montana that it didn't make much difference,

7:06

which of them wrote something. She said that

7:09

I cannot take a step whether in riding

7:11

horse speaking without finding myself in his

7:13

footsteps, and I believe that I am often

7:15

supposed to take his place. Many

7:18

of his habits as a writer also become hers.

7:20

Like the essays, the writings of indulgence

7:23

self conscious digressions, followed by

7:25

announcements that she is getting back to the topic

7:27

at hand. She defends Montain's

7:29

focus on his own personality and his

7:31

quest for virtue. Saying of his critics,

7:34

it seems to them that the science of living is

7:36

so easy that one is foolish containing to

7:38

publish the practice of it. Her

7:40

artful self presentation as an author

7:43

also recalls Maintain. If anything,

7:45

she's even more concerned about her reputation

7:47

since as she puts it to be unknown

7:49

is in a way, not to be. At

7:52

a philosophical level, she adopts his use

7:54

of skeptical strategies. She says

7:57

as he had that Outlandish stories should not

7:59

be rejected and only treated as unproven.

8:01

Gournay even doubts her

8:03

own worth since integrity is often

8:05

doubtful in other people, only Montana's

8:07

theme for her makes her confident that

8:09

she must be deserving of that esteem. Gournay

8:13

also deploys skeptical strategies in

8:15

arguing for the equality of the sepsis. Montana

8:18

argued in his apology for Himon Sebon

8:21

that there is no obvious hierarchy between

8:23

different knowers. We find different

8:25

perspectives being adopted by the same person at

8:27

different times by people of different cultures

8:29

and even by animals as opposed to humans.

8:32

Who are way to say which perspective is the best?

8:35

You can see how this line of thought could be a bulwark

8:37

against epidemic injustice and Gouné

8:39

used it exactly that way. The

8:41

man who just smiles condescendingly at

8:43

the use of a woman is, we might say,

8:46

failing to realize that her perspective is

8:48

on a part with his. Since

8:50

was a feminist who claimed to carry on the

8:52

legacy of Montana, who would have been welcomed

8:55

to her if Montain had seen the feminist implications

8:57

of his own philosophy. She was

8:59

convinced that he did mostly on the strength of

9:01

a passage in which Montain wrote that

9:04

male and female are cast in the same mold.

9:06

Save for Education and Custom, the difference

9:08

between them is not great. As

9:10

we'll see shortly, this I'd is unfolded at

9:12

length in Ganoi's own writings on the equality

9:15

of women. In the same passage,

9:17

Montana even cites Plato as an placeholder

9:19

of gender equality, something also

9:21

found in Korné. Unfortunately,

9:24

for her, Mintonia's record on the question is

9:26

more mixed than she would like to admit though.

9:28

De dedicated one of his essays to the topic

9:30

of virtuous women, but all the examples

9:32

that come to his mind are women who killed themselves

9:34

for their husbands. Elsewhere Turkey

9:37

says that women are weak and reasoning. They

9:39

allow themselves to be led to where natural

9:41

impressions act most alone like

9:43

animals. In a passage

9:46

that would be uploaded to Hanai's claims to have

9:48

shared an intimacy with Montana on

9:50

a par with the friendship he had with La Voie,

9:52

Montaglia says that whereas women have beauty,

9:55

it is men who have reason, wisdom, and loving

9:57

friendship. That is why they are in

9:59

charge of the world affairs. So

10:02

in adopting a thoroughly egalitarian view

10:04

of the sexes, Gournay was going well beyond

10:07

Monte or perhaps saying what he

10:09

would have said if he'd been more consistent in

10:11

his epistemic pegyleitarious. After

10:13

all, if even non human animals have

10:15

a valid point of view on the world, and surely

10:18

so to women. It's worth stressing

10:20

that does indeed argue for the equality

10:23

of sexes and not for the superiority

10:25

of women. The more provocative

10:27

move of claiming superiority was made by

10:29

some women orders of this period, like Luccrezia

10:32

Marinela, an almost exact contemporary

10:34

of Goynez, Marietta was born in

10:36

fifteen seventy one and died in sixteen fifty

10:38

three. Maricopa Nay lived from fifteen

10:40

sixty five to sixteen forty five. But

10:43

Juanet says, again, ringing bells that

10:45

might have sounded in Montana's tower, I

10:48

avoid all extremes and am content

10:50

to make women equal to men. Her

10:53

interest in gender and the relationship between

10:55

the sexes is already evident in an early

10:57

work, a narrative called the Paminade

10:59

of Monster de Montaine. It

11:01

was published the year before her edition of the essays

11:04

and claims to be a written version of a story

11:06

she used to delight Montana when

11:08

he was visiting with her. Again,

11:10

Gouné is taking license for literary

11:12

purposes here. In fact, the story was

11:14

likely written after his death and is based

11:16

on a story by another author named Claude

11:19

DeTaimo. With what I take

11:21

to be ironically obvious, disingenuousness,

11:24

she says in her dedication of the work to Montana,

11:26

that she has taken the material from another book

11:28

but cannot quite remember the title or

11:30

author of her source. The main

11:32

thing is that her own tale is indeed original.

11:35

I prefer she says to be empty rather

11:37

than full of debts. Without

11:40

going into the complex details of the story

11:42

here, it may suffice to say that the heroin

11:44

is pursued by two male lovers, and

11:46

that Gouné uses this plot to show how

11:48

women are seen as conquests by men

11:51

and unfairly treated, if not abused,

11:53

by faithless and cynical suitors. As

11:56

in her preface to the essays, she also

11:58

digresses to defend the idea that women

12:00

should be taken seriously as intellectuals. Philosophy

12:03

will lead them to virtue, not wantoneness, even

12:06

if it may make them unconventional in their

12:08

way of life. Presumably thinking

12:10

of herself, she writes that great intellects

12:13

always stray from the beaten path than

12:15

more so because they have persuaded themselves that

12:17

what is strange according to custom

12:20

is submission to reason. The

12:22

distance she takes here from custom, again, recalls

12:25

the skeptical attitudes she cares with Montana.

12:28

What appears as a digression in the promenade

12:31

takes center stage in Gourmet's treatise, the

12:33

quality of men and women. Written

12:35

for Han of Austria, wife of the

12:37

French king Louis the thirteenth. It

12:40

first appeared in sixteen twenty two, but was

12:42

revised and expanded thereafter. Just

12:44

as Montana did with his essays and Gourmet

12:46

did with number of her her own works. She

12:49

admits that women are often in practice inferior

12:51

to men. But this, as Montana said,

12:53

in that one feminist passage, is

12:55

due to the poor education they are offered.

12:58

In fact, as she observes elsewhere, educated

13:01

women like herself may have to hide

13:03

their learning because society frowns

13:05

on it. That's another observation

13:07

that would fit right in with Fricker's discussion of

13:10

Epistemic injustice as with the executive

13:12

who had to disclaim authorship of her ideas

13:15

to get them taken seriously. furthermore

13:18

argues that women should be placed on a par with

13:20

men in political and religious context.

13:23

She criticizes the Salic law

13:25

which is we've seen prevented women from inheriting

13:27

the throne, and recommends that women should

13:29

be allowed to perform sacraments as male

13:31

priests do advised the Catholic churches

13:34

still declining to take today about four

13:36

hundred years after she wrote. Not

13:38

that Gourmet was tempted by protestantism, In

13:41

this work, she responds to the claim that women

13:43

cannot understand scripture by saying that men

13:45

can't either, which of course would undercut

13:47

the whole loose rent and calvinist program. Philosophically

13:51

though, the heart of Gwendy's case is that women

13:54

and men share the same nature. As

13:56

she puts it, the human animal taken

13:58

rightly is neither abnormal. The

14:00

sexes having been made double, not

14:03

so as to constitute a difference in species,

14:05

but for the sake of propagation alone. There

14:08

is nothing more like a Tomcat on a windowsill

14:10

than a female cat. Man and woman

14:12

are so thoroughly one that if man is

14:15

more than woman, woman is more than man.

14:18

Here, is relying on a truism

14:20

of a rizatilian thought. Biologically

14:23

speaking, both men and women belong to the

14:25

same species and sex is merely accidental

14:27

to them as humans. When combined

14:29

with the point familiar from a ten that there

14:31

is great variation within each type

14:33

of creature, Guanee can infer that the potential

14:36

capacities that come along with membership

14:38

of the human species are realized

14:40

different degrees by different individuals. This

14:43

undermines a widespread assumption of her

14:45

day that she mentions in her preface to the essays

14:47

that even the best of women will be only

14:50

as great as the least men. In

14:52

the opinion of Lipsias, apparently of Montana

14:55

and most definitely of Gouné herself,

14:57

Gouné did count among the best of women.

15:00

But she was ready to recognize that she had

15:02

equals. She belonged to the entourage

15:04

of Marguerite Avanois, who is

15:07

not to be confused with Marguerite of Navarre.

15:09

Whom we covered in episode three ninety eight.

15:12

Though you could be forgiven for being confused

15:14

because this marriage was also a

15:16

queen of Navarre and then queen of France,

15:18

the less. She presided over

15:20

a literary salon in the early seventeenth

15:23

century, of which Gourmet was a regular

15:25

member. Gourmet also engaged

15:27

in learned car expense of the type we discussed

15:29

when looking at the later French Humanists, Gallagher

15:31

and Caso Bo. In particular, we

15:33

have an interesting exchange of letters between

15:35

her and another prominent woman of the day the

15:38

much younger Anna De von Schurman,

15:40

who did not die until fifteen seventy eight.

15:43

Schurman was a Protestant who was in touch

15:45

with many leading intellectuals. As

15:47

an article devoted to her correspondence with

15:49

Juane points out, we have here an example

15:52

of how women participated in the Republic

15:54

of letters. Characteristic of early

15:56

modern Europe. Not

15:58

content with being Montana's symbolic daughter

16:01

and Libya's symbolic sister offers

16:03

when writing to Sherman to serve as mother

16:06

to her. By this logic, Sherman

16:08

would, I suppose, be Montagne's intellectual granddaughter.

16:11

Gonais is not shy and lavishing praise

16:13

upon her and compares her to the comet

16:15

or new star seen in the night

16:18

sky by Tecobre. Sherman

16:20

returned the favor, writing a poem

16:22

about the elder woman of letters in which she

16:24

praised her as a strong defender of

16:26

the cause of our sex, but

16:29

they did not. Quite see eye to eye on

16:31

what it meant to be a woman of letters. Korné

16:33

gently criticized German for spending too

16:36

much time on learning ancient languages. De

16:38

was spending too much effort on Latin and Greek

16:41

she advised, and don't worry about Hebrew

16:43

at all. Language is taken inordinate

16:45

and too long a time for mind is capable

16:47

of matters and of the best as

16:49

yours. She would later

16:51

give even more radical advice to the future

16:54

king, Louis the thirteenth, saying he should

16:56

not even bother with Greek and Latin since

16:58

everything worth reading was now available

17:00

in French. These passages

17:02

may indicate a receding of humanist ambitions

17:05

from the high point of the fifteenth and sixteen

17:07

centuries. As French vernacular

17:09

literature is advanced and more translations

17:11

were made, mastery of classical languages

17:14

became less vital. Perhaps

17:16

though there is also a subtle anti protestant

17:18

agenda in discouraging Shurman from

17:20

the study of Hebrew, As we saw her

17:22

saying already, scripture is not something

17:25

individual believers should be confident

17:27

of understanding. As

17:29

we can see from these developments and the dates of

17:31

her publications, Marie De Gounet has

17:33

brought us well into the seventeenth century.

17:36

It obviously made sense to discuss her here

17:38

following on from Montana, but equally,

17:40

obviously, we are not done with the age of reformation.

17:43

We've dealt with Central Europe and the low countries

17:46

and this look at Gourmet has rounded off our

17:48

tour of Renaissance France. But

17:50

there is another region that still needs our attention

17:52

if we're going to understand the full impact of

17:54

the reformation and the full riches of philosophy

17:57

during the Renaissance. It's a place

17:59

whose most famous son at least from this period

18:01

and maybe from any period called a

18:03

separate isle. The phrase

18:06

comes from a passage in Shakespeare's Richard

18:08

II, which also calls the inhabitants of

18:10

this island a happy breed, but

18:12

not as happy as you, since unlike

18:14

the denizens of Britain and the elizabethan age,

18:17

you get to keep listening too. The history

18:19

of philosophy without any cows.