Charlotte Witt | |
---|---|
Institutions | University of New Hampshire, University of Uppsala, Wayne State University |
Main interests | Ancient philosophy, metaphysics, feminist theory |
Charlotte Witt (born 27 September 1951) is an emeritus professor of philosophy and humanities at the University of New Hampshire. [1]
Witt double majored at Swarthmore College, graduating in 1975 with degrees both classics and philosophy. [2] She went on to receive her master's and doctorate in philosophy from Georgetown University in 1978 and 1980, respectively. [2]
Witt is a Professor Emeritus of philosophy and the humanities at the University of New Hampshire, where she chaired the philosophy department from 2000 to 2003. In addition, she previously held appointments as a Visiting Professor at the University of Uppsala, and Assistant Professor at Wayne State University. [2]
Witt's research has generally focused on ancient philosophy, metaphysics and feminist theory. [1] She has written extensively about the metaphysics of gender, about Aristotle (especially about Aristotelian metaphysics,) and feminist metaphysics. [2] She has also written and spoken about the relationship between feminist philosophy and the traditional philosophical canon, arguing that feminist philosophy's enduring interest in the canon has been a process of historical self-justification (that is, justifying why feminist philosophy should exist,) and argues further that this is a process nearly identical to that that other emergent disciplines of philosophy undertook as they emerged. [2] [3] She has also published on the philosophy of adoption and the family.
Writing in 1993 in A Mind of One's Own: Feminist Essays on Reason and Objectivity, Witt described herself as subscribing, at least in part, to traditional philosophical paradigms that have found themselves under "feminist attack". [4]
Witt has written four books: Substance and Essence in Aristotle (published in 1989), Ways of Being: Potentiality and Actuality in Aristotle's Metaphysics (2003), The Metaphysics of Gender (published in 2010), and Social Goodness: The Ontology of Social Norms (published in 2023). [2] She has also edited several volumes, including A Mind of One's Own: Feminist Essays on Reason and Objectivity (1992; revised and expanded second edition, 2001) and Adoption Matters: Feminist and Philosophical Essays (2005). [2]
Ways of Being: Potentiality and Actuality in Aristotle's Metaphysics is focused on Aristotle's discussion of potentiality and actuality, found in Metaphysics IX. Witt argues that Metaphysics IX is not intended as a sequel to earlier books, but can stand on its own, since it contains a coherent argument (framed around an examination of different ways of existing) that is aimed at achieving a separate goal from the other volumes of Aristotle's Metaphysics. Witt points to textual evidence in Metaphysics IX and earlier volumes in support of this claim, specifically the fact that Aristotle's earlier discussions of potentiality and actuality (found in Metaphysics VIII) are never linked to the discussion of those concepts in Metaphysics IX, the fact that Metaphysics IX differs significantly in topic from its predecessors, the fact that the view of reality portrayed in Metaphysics IX can only be understood within the framework provided by Metaphysics IX and the fact that, at the start of Metaphysics IX Aristotle states that he has finished his discussion of kinds of beings and will now move on to discuss ways of being. [5] [6]
In The Metaphysics of Gender, Witt takes a strong stance in favor of gender essentialism, arguing that gender is the fundamental unifying trait that creates and unifies all other social roles that people occupy, thus making gender essential to identity, and all other traits subsidiary. [7] Witt argues that the proper role of feminism, rather than abolishing gender roles or simply giving women more choices, should be to reconfigure gender roles so that they are no longer oppressive to women. [8]
Aristotle was an Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, and the arts. As the founder of the Peripatetic school of philosophy in the Lyceum in Athens, he began the wider Aristotelian tradition that followed, which set the groundwork for the development of modern science.
Hylomorphism is a philosophical doctrine developed by the Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, which conceives every physical entity or being (ousia) as a compound of matter (potency) and immaterial form (act), with the generic form as immanently real within the individual. The word is a 19th-century term formed from the Greek words ὕλη and μορφή. Hylomorphic theories of physical entities have been undergoing a revival in contemporary philosophy.
Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature is the philosophical study of physics, that is, nature and the physical universe while ignoring any supernatural influence. It was dominant before the development of modern science.
Elisabeth of the Palatinate, also known as Elisabeth of Bohemia, Princess Elisabeth of the Palatinate, or Princess-Abbess of Herford Abbey, was the eldest daughter of Frederick V, Elector Palatine, and Elizabeth Stuart. Elisabeth of the Palatinate was a philosopher best known for her correspondence with René Descartes. She was critical of Descartes' dualistic metaphysics and her work anticipated the metaphysical concerns of later philosophers.
In philosophy, potentiality and actuality are a pair of closely connected principles which Aristotle used to analyze motion, causality, ethics, and physiology in his Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, and De Anima.
Metaphysics is one of the principal works of Aristotle, in which he develops the doctrine that he calls First Philosophy. The work is a compilation of various texts treating abstract subjects, notably substance theory, different kinds of causation, form and matter, the existence of mathematical objects and the cosmos, which together constitute much of the branch of philosophy later known as metaphysics.
Aristotle first used the term ethics to name a field of study developed by his predecessors Socrates and Plato which is devoted to the attempt to provide a rational response to the question of how humans should best live. Aristotle regarded ethics and politics as two related but separate fields of study, since ethics examines the good of the individual, while politics examines the good of the city-state, which he considered to be the best type of community.
The unmoved mover or prime mover is a concept advanced by Aristotle as a primary cause or "mover" of all the motion in the universe. As is implicit in the name, the unmoved mover moves other things, but is not itself moved by any prior action. In Book 12 of his Metaphysics, Aristotle describes the unmoved mover as being perfectly beautiful, indivisible, and contemplating only the perfect contemplation: self-contemplation. He also equates this concept with the active intellect. This Aristotelian concept had its roots in cosmological speculations of the earliest Greek pre-Socratic philosophers and became highly influential and widely drawn upon in medieval philosophy and theology. Thomas Aquinas, for example, elaborated on the unmoved mover in the Five Ways.
Distinction, the fundamental philosophical abstraction, involves the recognition of difference.
Aristotle for Everybody: Difficult Thought Made Easy is a 1978 book by the philosopher Mortimer J. Adler. It serves as an "introduction to common sense" and philosophic thinking, for which there is "no better teacher than Aristotle," and which is "everybody's business," in his opinion.
Feminist philosophy is an approach to philosophy from a feminist perspective and also the employment of philosophical methods to feminist topics and questions. Feminist philosophy involves both reinterpreting philosophical texts and methods in order to supplement the feminist movement and attempts to criticise or re-evaluate the ideas of traditional philosophy from within a feminist framework.
Women have made significant contributions to philosophy throughout the history of the discipline. Ancient examples of female philosophers include Maitreyi, Gargi Vachaknavi, Hipparchia of Maroneia and Arete of Cyrene. Some women philosophers were accepted during the medieval and modern eras, but none became part of the Western canon until the 20th and 21st century, when some sources indicate that Simone Weil, Susanne Langer, G.E.M. Anscombe, Hannah Arendt, and Simone de Beauvoir entered the canon.
Substantial form is a central philosophical concept in Aristotelianism and, afterwards, in Scholasticism. The form is the idea, existent or embodied in a being, that completes or actualizes the potentiality latent in the matter composing the being itself. For Aristotle, in fact, matter is the basis of all that exists; it comprises the potentiality of everything, but of itself is not actually anything. A determinate thing only comes into being when the potentiality in matter is converted into actuality; this is achieved by the substantial form. It is substantial because it is the principle by which a material kind of thing is recognised as such.
Sally Haslanger is an American philosopher and the Ford Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Ásta Kristjana Sveinsdóttir, who publishes as Ásta, is an Icelandic philosopher. She was a professor of philosophy at San Francisco State University and is currently a professor at Duke University.
Ann E. Cudd is an American academic. She is the president of Portland State University as of August 1, 2023. She was previously the provost and senior vice chancellor and professor of philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh and dean of the college and graduate school of arts and sciences at Boston University.
Feminist metaphysics aims to question how inquiries and answers in the field of metaphysics have supported sexism. Feminist metaphysics overlaps with fields such as the philosophy of mind and philosophy of self. Feminist metaphysicians such as Sally Haslanger, Ásta, and Judith Butler have sought to explain the nature of gender in the interest of advancing feminist goals.
Ursula Charlotte Macgillivray Coope FBA is a British classical scholar, who is an expert in the study of the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle's physics, metaphysics, and ethics, as well as on Neoplatonism. She is Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Oxford.
Feminist philosophy of science is a branch of feminist philosophy that seeks to understand how the acquirement of knowledge through scientific means has been influenced by notions of gender identity and gender roles in society. Feminist philosophers of science question how scientific research and scientific knowledge itself may be influenced and possibly compromised by the social and professional framework within which that research and knowledge is established and exists. The intersection of gender and science allows feminist philosophers to reexamine fundamental questions and truths in the field of science to reveal how gender biases may influence scientific outcomes. The feminist philosophy of science has been described as being located "at the intersections of the philosophy of science and feminist science scholarship" and has attracted considerable attention since the 1980s.
Cynthia A. Freeland is an American philosopher of art. She has published three monographs, over two dozen articles, and edited several books. She is emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of Houston. She was the president of the American Society of Aesthetics until 2017. She has been awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2003 for a research project on Fakes and Forgeries. Her book But is it Art? (2001) has been translated into fourteen languages and was republished as part of the Oxford Very Short Introductions series. She talked about her book Portraits&Persons with Nigel Warburton on the Philosophy Bites podcast. She was interviewed by Hans Maes for the book Conversations on Art and Aesthetics (2017) which includes a photograph of her by American photographer Steve Pyke.