* Feminist Ethics at the SEP

* Feminist Bioethics at the SEP

* Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s science fiction classic Herland

* The Feminist Philosophers blog

* Mary Wollstonecraft’s 18th-century classic A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

* John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women

* Adrienne Rich’s Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence

* Connell and Messerschmidt, Hegemonic Masculinity (PDF)

* Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science at the SEP

* Feminist Social Epistemology at the SEP

* Feminist Epistemology at the IEP 

* Sharon Crasnow’s paper, Feminist Philosophy of Science: ‘Standpoint’ and Knowledge (PDF)

* Laura Aline Ward’s thesis, Objectivity in Feminist Philosophy of Science (PDF) 

* The Knowledge and Experience blog 

*  Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, The Yellow Wallpaper and her short essay Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper

Spinoza, Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, Preface. You can read more about Spinoza (1632-1677), one of the major Cartesians, at the SEP and at the IEP.

Thomas Reid, An Inquiry into the Human Mind, ch. 6, section 20. Thomas Reid was a leading representative of Scottish Common Sense Philosophy. You can read more about Reid at the SEP (and about his context here).

 David Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X (’Of Miracles’). This is relatively easy to find, both in libraries and online. Some places you can find it online (any one of these will do):

I - II - III - IV - V - VI

Lady Mary Shepherd, Essays on the Perception of an External Universe, Essay VIII (’That human testimony is of sufficient force to establish the credibility of miracles’). This is harder to find, so I’ll be handing out a hardcopy in class. To read it online, go to page 325 at this Google Book page.

"By which it appears that there are some degrees of Knowledge necessary before there can be any  Human Acts, for till we are capable of Chusing our own Actions and directing them by some Principle, tho we Move and Speak and so many such like things, we live not the Life of a Rational Creature but only of an Animal.  If it be farther demanded what these Principles are? Not to dispute the Number of ‘em here, no body I suppose will deny us one, which is, That we ought as much as we can to endeavour the Perfecting of our Beings, and that we be as happy as possibly we may.  For this we see is Natural to every Creature of what sort soever, which endeavours to be in as good Condition as its Nature and Circumstances will permit.  And now we have got a Principle which one would think were sufficient for the Conduct of our Actions thro’ the whole Course of our Lives; and so indeed it were, Cou’d we as easily discern, wherein our Happiness consists as ’tis natural to wish and desire it."

Mary Astell, A Serious Proposal to the Ladies Part II. Mary Astell (1666-1731) was a self-taught philosopher, and one of a number of important women philosophers in this period. You can read more about Astell at the SEP and find further information, including selections from her works, at Luminarium.

"Let us suppose that a man, fallen from the clouds, walks the earth continuously in a straight line, I mean, in one of those great circles by which geographers divide it, and that nothing prevents him from traveling. Could he, after several days’ journey, decide that the earth is infinite, because he did not find its end? If he were wise and reserved in judgment, he would believe it to be quite large, but he would not judge it to be infinite. And as a result of walking, finding himself at the same place from which he departed, he would realise that he had actually gone around it. However, when the mind thinks of intelligible extension, when it seeks to measure the idea of space, it sees clearly that it is infinite. It cannot doubt that this idea is inexhaustible."

Nicolas Malebranche, Dialogues on Metaphysics and on Religion, I.IX (Jolley-Scott translation, p. 15). By ‘intelligible extension’ and ‘the idea of space’ here, Malebranche means the sort of extension and space studied by geometers. You can find out more about Malebranche (1638-1715) at the SEP, which also has an article on his theory of ideas.