Amalia Holst: On the Vocation of Woman to Higher Intellectual Education (British Society for the History of Philosophy:New Texts in the History of Philosophy)

This edition offers the first English translation of Amalia Holst's daring book, On the Vocation of Woman to Higher Intellectual Education (1802). In one of the first works of German philosophy published under a woman's name, Holst presents a manifesto for women's education that centres on a basic provocation: as far as the mind is concerned, women are equal partakers in the project of Enlightenment and should thus have unfettered access to the sciences in general and to philosophy in particular. Holst's manifesto resonates with the work of several women writers across Europe, including Olympe de Gouges, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Germaine de Staël. Yet in contrast to the early works of feminism we celebrate today, her book had little success. Its reception confronts us with a darker side of the German Enlightenment that, until recently, has been neglected. Holst sought to unearth the gendered nature of the fundamental concepts of the Enlightenment--including vocation, education, and culture--which enabled men to establish the subordinate status of women by philosophical means. However, her argument was scorned by male reviewers, who denied the very possibility of a woman philosopher. With an introduction by Andrew Cooper, and translations of biographical material and early reviews, this edition provides students and scholars of German philosophy with a timely resource for developing a richer understanding of their field, and general readers with a powerful early feminist text that reveals the opportunities and difficulties facing women philosophers at the turn of the nineteenth century. Cover Amalia Holst: On the Vocation of Woman to Higher Intellectual Education Copyright Contents Acknowledgements Introduction 1 Life and Context 1.1 Amalia Holst, née von Justi 1.2 Writings 1.2.1 Observations on the Errors of Our Modern Education 1.2.2 Letters on Elisa 1.2.3 On the Vocation of Woman 1.3 The Bestimmung Debate 2 The Text 2.1 Overview 2.2 Reconstructing Holst’s Arguments 2.2.1 Cataloguing Learned Women 2.2.2 The Sexless Mind 2.2.3 Exposing the Dynamics of Power 2.2.4 The Principles of Higher Intellectual Education 2.2.5 Holst’s Prejudices 2.2.6 The Public Status of Women 3 Reception and Sources 3.1 Reception 3.2 Sources 4 Conclusion Note on Translation Frontispiece Dedication to Queen of Prussia Dedication to Queen by author Preface 1. Does Higher Education of the Mind Contradict the Proximate Calling of Woman as Wife, Mother, and Housewife? 2. Woman Considered as Wife: Does the Higher Education of Her Mind Make Her Incapable of Fulfilling the Duties of This Position? 3. The Educated Woman as Mother 4. The Educated Woman as Housewife 5. On the Education of Woman in the Unmarried State APPENDIX 1: Biographical References Johann Beckmann, Vorrath kleiner Anmerkungen über mancherley gelehrte Gegenstände, vol. 3. (Göttingen: J. H. Röwer, 1806), 549–50 Obituary in Neuer Nekrolog der Deutschen, 7(1) (Ilmenau: Voigt, 1829 [1831]), 63–4 Obituary in Freimütiges Abendblatt, no. 557 (Rostock, 1829), cols 741–2 Bibliographical entry in Damen Conversations-Lexicon, vol. 5 (Adorf: Bureau, 1846), 318–19 Bibliographical entry in Das Lexikon der hamburgischen Schriftsteller, ed. Dr Phil. Hans Schröder (Hamburg, 1857), 329–31 APPENDIX 2: Reviews of Holst’s work Review of Observations on the Errors of Our Modern Education from a Practical Educator, in Göttingische Anzeigen von gelehrten Sachen 55, 7 April 1792, 545–7 Review of On the Vocation of Woman to Higher IntellectualEducation, in Beilage des Hamburgischen Correspondenten,February 9, no. 23 (Hamburg, 1802) Review of On the Vocation of Woman to Higher Intellectual Education, in Kaiserlich-Privlegirte hamburgische Neue Zeitung, 34, Stück 27, February 1802 (Berlin: Heinrich Frölich), 12 Review of On the Vocation of Woman to Higher Intellectual Education, in Hamburg und Altona: eine Zeitschrift zur Geschichte der Zeit, der Sitten und des Geschmacks, 3 (7–9) (Hamburg: Nestler, 1802), 95–7, 205–12, 356–60 Notes Preface Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Bibliography Primary Sources: the Works of Amalia Holst Other Primary Sources Secondary Sources Index