rromanereads's review against another edition
5.0
a feminist book to reconcile you with philosophy.
At the crossroads between a philosophical lesson and a memoir, this book tells the story of four women philosophers: Damaris Cudworth Masham, Mary Astell, Catharine Cockburn and Mary Wollstonecraft as well as the story of Regan herself. Immersed in academic and then professorial life, she ponders the "big questions" of life. She reflects on the position of women in philosophy, and experiences herself the omnipresent misogyny in this milieu and the devaluation of the work of women philosophers. She highlights how these women of letters are ignored in philosophy curricula. It's simple, without having much knowledge in this field or having done dedicated studies, how many women philosophers can you name? It's indicative of the place we give to their work. Another area where white men dominate. This ubiquitous observation in every field makes me mad, thank you to women like Regan Penaluna for writing this kind of work to enrich and educate us, long live the sisterhood.
This was my first audiobook ever and as it’s not fiction you can’t just distractedly listen with one ear, I will read the physical book as well just to be able to actually remember things from what I read. This is completely personal but if like me you have a more visual than auditory memory and attention span then I would recommend going for the physical copy! Either way, this book is an incredible work piece and very interesting. It makes philosophy accessible to everyone.
At the crossroads between a philosophical lesson and a memoir, this book tells the story of four women philosophers: Damaris Cudworth Masham, Mary Astell, Catharine Cockburn and Mary Wollstonecraft as well as the story of Regan herself. Immersed in academic and then professorial life, she ponders the "big questions" of life. She reflects on the position of women in philosophy, and experiences herself the omnipresent misogyny in this milieu and the devaluation of the work of women philosophers. She highlights how these women of letters are ignored in philosophy curricula. It's simple, without having much knowledge in this field or having done dedicated studies, how many women philosophers can you name? It's indicative of the place we give to their work. Another area where white men dominate. This ubiquitous observation in every field makes me mad, thank you to women like Regan Penaluna for writing this kind of work to enrich and educate us, long live the sisterhood.
This was my first audiobook ever and as it’s not fiction you can’t just distractedly listen with one ear, I will read the physical book as well just to be able to actually remember things from what I read. This is completely personal but if like me you have a more visual than auditory memory and attention span then I would recommend going for the physical copy! Either way, this book is an incredible work piece and very interesting. It makes philosophy accessible to everyone.
jessnelson93's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Beautiful and thought provoking look at philosophy, misogyny and our place in the world
ktxx22's review against another edition
2.0
DNF at 53%. I found a lot of the information here interesting but also I honestly do NOT care about any of it. I gave it over 50% to sway me and entice my brain but I really am not interested in completing this book or learning more on this subject.
claire_dudley's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
3.75
jennastumbles's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
jpov's review against another edition
4.0
I took a philosophy class in college and I wish I could say it was more memorable. It was only an intro to philosophy but I imagined the class to have more opportunities to explore concepts that I knew and end up questioning and debating. Instead, we focused on the main male philosophers and spoke about matter. I remember feeling deflated and regretting having picked a nine am class. I wish instead that I took a class from Regan Penaluna. I loved learning about these four women and about Penaluna’s own experiences. I will preface by saying that this is and I don’t think should be an overnight read. You get a lot of history from Penaluna, giving context to these four woman philosophers not solely their philosophies and facts. With all this information they should be given space and time to settle in your mind.
This book follows along while Penaluna talks you through her life, her studies of philosophy and how throughout it she found these four women philosophers who ended up changing her life. There were many quotes that stood out to me (and that I have highlighted and noted in a notebook) yet this is the one that has stuck and I will leave with you. It is from one of the philosophers Mary Wollstonecraft, “Do not retreat. A woman’s path to self-knowledge requires her to risk losing herself to find herself. I will go further, and affirm, as an indisputable fact, that most of the women, in the circle of my observation, who have acted like rational creatures, or shewn any vigour of intellect, have accidentally been allowed to run wild”.
Thank you to Regan Penaluna, NetGalley, and Grove Atlantic.
This book follows along while Penaluna talks you through her life, her studies of philosophy and how throughout it she found these four women philosophers who ended up changing her life. There were many quotes that stood out to me (and that I have highlighted and noted in a notebook) yet this is the one that has stuck and I will leave with you. It is from one of the philosophers Mary Wollstonecraft, “Do not retreat. A woman’s path to self-knowledge requires her to risk losing herself to find herself. I will go further, and affirm, as an indisputable fact, that most of the women, in the circle of my observation, who have acted like rational creatures, or shewn any vigour of intellect, have accidentally been allowed to run wild”.
Thank you to Regan Penaluna, NetGalley, and Grove Atlantic.
ameliasbooks's review against another edition
This topic is definitely very interesting, but the way it is written is just all over the place. I like the voice of the author, but this book is lacking a structure which wants to keep you going. The mix between memoir and educational information makes sense, but is not created in a way that interlocks smoothly. I am still interested to finish this book one day.