Transmission and Exclusion of Knowledge in Enlightment: Philosophy for Ladies and Querelle des Femmes

Abstract

At the beginning of Modernity there was an increasing process of spreading, access, and popularization of knowledge. In this context, this paper stands two points: On the one hand, “philosophies for ladies”, made by men, in spite of their purpose of spreading scientific knowledge, represent the typical contradiction in Enlightment while pursuing the emancipation of humanity and the oppression of women. On the other hand, different essays about that “philosophies for ladies”, many of them due to women, show a “dispute of women” (querelle des femmes) along the European republic of letters. This is the outcome of an early Enlightment and a counterpoint to the contradiction between the diffusion of knowledge to all mankind and the exclusion of women in this process. Taking into account someone “representative” of Enlightment ethics (Wolff, Kant), we explain the contradiction between theoria and praxis by means of the confrontation between ethics and anthropology. These querelle des femmes represents - as stressed by Celia Amorós - “an enlightment inside the enlightment” that rebuilds the link between theory and praxis, between ethics and anthropology.