GYNODICY · gender-egalitarian fictions of origin in European philosophical culture (1673-1751)
Horizon Europe — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2024-09-01 → 2026-08-31
- EU contribution
- €187,249
- Participants
- 2
- Scheme
- HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
GYNODICY: gender-egalitarian fictions of origin in European philosophical culture (1673-1751)
How do representations of an “original” humanity ground our socio-political organisation? What role do they play in early modern feminist political theory? This research project examines gender-egalitarian fictions of the origins of societal organisation that circulated in European culture during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The project’s objective is to investigate how these representations were implemented to contest the naturalisation of gendered power imbalance within society. The project focuses on feminist responses to the problem of gynodicy, that is, the challenge of accounting for historically-instantiated gender inequality while defending, as a theoretical starting point, the idea of a natural equality between men and women. The project proposes a new narrative within early modern philosophy scholarship by recovering and examining a body of literature comprised of both printed works and unedited manuscripts that denounce gender-based inequality and injustice, while also taking into account dialogically rival early modern texts that strive to naturalize and consolidate patriarchal hierarchies. The project aims to give voice to early modern women intellectuals and feminist philosophers who were excluded from the canon of the history of philosophy.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
This project aims at producing the first comprehensive study of the philosophical problem of “gynodicy”, i.e., the incompatibility of, on one hand, a rational defence of women as naturally equal in capacities and in rights to men and, on the other, their factual subjection to men. GYNODICY concentrates on gender-egalitarian texts from the early modern period that circulated within European philosophical culture and specifically on the gender-egalitarian fictions of origin these texts put forth with the objective of arguing against the naturalisation of women’s submission to men. This study is important because the authors of said sources developed the intellectual foundations of the defence of the “equality of the sexes”, which lead to women’s civic and political enfranchisement. These writings on gynodicy have been generally overlooked in academic research, thus contributing to consolidate an incomplete panorama of early modern political thought. GYNODICY seeks to counter this by proposing a new narrative that recovers a body of literature comprised of both printed works and unedited manuscripts, which has hitherto received scanty attention. The project promotes a transnational approach to the circulation of gender-egalitarian ideas and an interdisciplinary perspective. Natalia Zorrilla’s experience studying fictions of origin in clandestine philosophical literature and early modern women philosophers make her the ideal researcher for this project. She will benefit from the expertise of her supervisors: Marguerite Deslauriers (McGill University, outgoing phase) and Marco Sgarbi (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, return phase). Thanks to the training planned during this GF, Zorrilla will acquire new skills and establish an international scientific network connecting Europe and the Americas, thus becoming a leading scholar in early modern philosophy.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
Links
- View on CORDIS
- DOI: 10.3030/101106239
- https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/documents/downloadPublic?documentIds=080166e5193e55ac&appId=PPGMS
Data: CORDIS, © European Union