The Role of Writing and Sociability for the Establishment of a Persona

This chapter examines the various strategies of intellectual self-formation by female intellectuals. While Henriette Herz created the public persona of the nurturing muse in her salon and established the idea of mutual exchange between the sexes, Rahel Varnhagen took the idea of self-reflection in the eyes of others one step further and, together with her husband, created a monument of remembrance with her collection of letters, fashioning the modern persona as fundamentally constituted through her exchange with others. Bettina von Arnim, finally, had no qualms using the most prominent poet, Goethe, as a prop in her writings, exercising the subversive power of remembrance to establish herself. Even though all these strategies build on the (male) other, they showcase the potential to subvert traditional gender roles.

Wilhelmine of Bayreuth and the German Enlightenment

The chapter focuses on the figure of Princess Wilhelmine of Prussia (Friederike Sophie Wilhelmine, 1709–1758), Frederick the Great’s older and favourite sister, then Margravine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth. Wilhelmine plays a central role within the German philosophical debate in the 1740s. Her intellectual engagement comes out in an extraordinary clear way in her commitment to making Bayreuth one of the main intellectual centres of the Holy Roman Empire. The chapter focuses on Wilhelmine’s cultural and institutional engagement in the philosophical debate of the German Enlightenment on the basis of her philosophical reflections both in her correspondence with the most representative personality of the time and in her works.

On Prejudice and the Limits to Learnedness

This chapter considers the context, interpretation, and significance of Dorothea Christiane Erxleben’s Rigorous Investigation of the Causes that Obstruct the Female Sex from Study. In addition to being under-appreciated in its own time, Erxleben’s Rigorous Investigation remains overlooked in ours as an important contribution to feminist thought in the eighteenth century. As I contend, on account of its comprehensive refutation of the specious philosophical, theological, physiological, and psychological grounds for denying women access to study, as well as its advocacy for the necessity and utility of women’s education and for specific and ambitious educational reforms, the Rigorous Investigation deserves a more prominent place in the pantheon of feminist literature.

A Mere Skeleton of the Sciences? Amalia Holst’s Critique of Basedow and Campe

In this chapter I examine Amalia Holst’s critique of Johann Bernhard Basedow’s and Joachim Heinrich Campe’s strongly gendered views of education. After a brief overview of the influential Rousseauvian background, I turn to Basedow’s remarks about girls’ education in his Methodenbuch (1770) and Campe’s position as presented in his Väterlicher Rath für meine Tochter (1789). I then assess the strength of Holst’s criticisms of both authors’ positions, showing where they hit (as well as occasionally miss) their intended targets. I conclude with a brief evaluation of Holst’s own alternative pedagogical theory, arguing that while in some ways it represents a clear advance over earlier Enlightenment views, in other ways it does not.

Sophie of Hanover on the Soul–Body Relationship

This chapter aims to examine Sophie of Hanover’s original, but often overlooked contribution to the debate over the soul–body relationship. It explains that her main interest is in problems pertaining to the influence of bodily motion on the soul, for instance how the mother’s physiological imagination has an impact on the development of the foetus or how ideas are caused by material determinations. It also argues that Sophie remains sceptical of any metaphysical explanation in the domain of rational psychology, for instance of the Leibnizian hypothesis of pre-established harmony. For a similar reason, I contend that it is very unlikely that Sophie would maintain a materialistic conception of ideas, as commentators have argued.

Dorothea Schlegel and the Challenges of Female Authorship and Identity

In this chapter, I explore the particular social, religious, and gender pressures faced by eighteenth-century women authors by considering these pressures within the context of three stages of the life of Dorothea Schlegel (born Brendel Mendelssohn): first, in her early life and first marriage, secondly, in her emergence as an intellectual and author during the years in Jena with Friedrich Schlegel and the early Romantics, and thirdly, in her post-Jena years when she was active as a translator and story-teller. The chapter looks at the reasons for her dissatisfaction with her first marriage and considers how women intellectuals and writers were viewed in the eighteenth century.

Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel on the Status of Women in the State

Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel, mayor of Königsberg, was a friend and former student of Immanuel Kant. This chapter investigates Hippel’s plea for the improvement of the civil status of women in eighteenth-century Germany. Hippel argues that men and women are equal and that this equality should lead to similar civil status. On these grounds, he shows that the Enlightenment is bound to be self-defeating if women are excluded from the public sphere. In doing so, he proposes a feminist appropriation of some of Kant’s ideas—in particular by revisiting the categorical imperative. Hippel’s proposals thus provide support to the idea that the legal subordination of women is a problem for the enactment of the Enlightenment broadly construed, and even more so in a Kantian perspective.

Solace or Counsel for Death

This chapter presents new findings about Maria von Herbert’s life. Building on this, an interpretation is offered of what she means when she calls upon Kant ‘for solace … or for counsel to prepare [her] for death’. It is then argued that Kant’s reply is more satisfactory than is commonly appreciated, as he explicitly defines the roles which he is prepared to adopt—that of a ‘moral physician’ and of a ‘mediator’—and thus the standards by which to judge his reply. Having said that, his letter does not address what has been viewed as a challenge to Kantian ethics. It is a matter of dispute what exactly this challenge consists in. This chapter identifies the challenge and the terms in which it is most productively stated. Finally, it provides sufficient reasons to establish that a portrait that resurfaced in November 2016 does indeed depict Maria von Herbert.

Elise Reimarus

This chapter examines Elise Reimarus’s role in two of eighteenth-century Germany’s most heated intellectual controversies: the Fragment and Pantheism Controversies. In particular, the chapter considers how Reimarus’s Enlightenment views (including her own freethinking, deistic beliefs) informed her participation in the two controversies but also raise a puzzle—namely, why does Reimarus, a staunch defender of public reason and free speech, seem to have balked at the public disclosure of key information in both controversies? In response to this puzzle, the chapter argues that Reimarus’s reticence was motivated in large part by her prudential outlook regarding public discourse—specifically, by her worry that personal polemics and heated disputes threatened to corrupt the rational, public discourse required for Enlightenment progress.

Introduction

In this Introduction, I characterize the broader aim of this volume as showcasing women’s contributions to eighteenth-century German philosophy. Notably, these contributions range from topics in metaphysics, logic, and aesthetics, to moral and political philosophy, and pertain to the main philosophical movements in the period (the ‘Leibnizian-Wolffian’ philosophy, the Thomasian philosophy, the ‘popular’ philosophical movement, and the Kantian philosophy). They engage controversial issues such as atheism and materialism, but also women’s struggle for access to education and for recognition of their civic entitlements. The bulk of the Introduction is devoted to an overview of the figures and themes covered in the individual chapters. I conclude with a brief note relating to figures not represented in this volume, and offer a rationale for my choice of the volume's title.