Anyone who studied philosophy with open eyes could not fail to notice that from the very beginning, women philosophers have had an important function in the history of philosophy.How could we philosophize without starting with Plato and Socrates, and ignoring Socrates' female teachers?And yet this has been the reality in the institutions of philosophy teaching, in universities, schools and academies, worldwide.Philosophy and its traditions have been taught only in part.It was as if Newton had only measured every other planet to determine the dynamics of dependencies.How was it possible that so many famous names were mentioned but not taught?Theano, Diotima, Aspasia, Hildegard of Bingen, Teresa of Avila, Margaret Cavendish, Elizabeth of Bohemia, Anne Conway, Émilie Du Châtelet, Olympe de Gouges, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Harriet Taylor Mill never completely disappeared, even though they had been eradicated from the patriarchal canon of institutional teaching.Early in the 1980s Mary Ellen Waithe started to bring these ideas and their authors together in a four-volume set, compiling much of the knowledge that was accessible before the creation of the internet.1 Waithe documented the biased philosophical approach to philosophy's history.While many great philosophers did not care to name the women by whom they had been influenced, Plato, Descartes, Leibniz, Kant and Mill did name them, yet even today, some ignore that reality.Not all philosophers are right.The history of philosophy itself needs to be critically examined.One of the most important factors contributing to rewriting the history of philosophy in a more reliable way is to bring in women's ideas.That will demonstrate the epistemological gain of works that have long been suppressed or ignored.No loss of knowledge is good.While the ideas of women have been presented separately and cut off from the canon for many decades, now is the time to bring it together, to rewrite a history of philosophy that is more complete than it has been up to now.Working together for now and the future, we participate in the creation of anthologies, translations, encyclopedias, conferences, symposia, research programs and curricula devoted to reclaiming, restoring and reconsidering what women's contributions have been to our discipline.
