TL;DR: The lack of female philosophers in this book is unforgivable.
Bought this in my local bookstore and although I didn't expRant Review incoming...
TL;DR: The lack of female philosophers in this book is unforgivable.
Bought this in my local bookstore and although I didn't expect much it still managed to disappoint me... As a philosophy student, as a feminist and simply as a woman reading.
My thought process before purchasing it was:
"How cool would it be to have a (very condensed) summary of philosophy with comics! Even if it's not too good it will still be nice in my bookshelf and to occassionally take a look and enjoy philosophy comics!"
While I found myself liking a lot of the comics it was weirdly... paced at times. Some things the authors dedicated a lot of time to while other topics they just quickly brushed over. I truly think this is due to how short (and small) this book is and due to the history of philosophy being so long.
It also didn't specify that it was about western philosophy only but it was quite evident to me before buying.
So these flaws I could have easily forgiven.
What I cannot forgive however is that this book makes it seem like there are no women in philosophy and never were.
Yes, philosophy was - like most academic disciplines in the western world - dominated by men for thousands of years. Women weren't even allowed to study the subject for the majority of my own university's history.
[The first woman to legitimately study at the University of Vienna started her philosophy studies in 1897. At this time the university was already more than 500 years old.]
These historical facts do not mean that women had no impact on philosophy tho. Even before they were legally allowed to study there were educated women bringing in their perspectives! Although I will admit it is easier finding womens' voices in today's philosophy than it was 100 years ago.
But this book goes even further: The last topic is postmodernism and the book was first published in 1998. So from well over 20 years ago. That seems like a lot but it's not really in philosophy.
The book does not dedicate a single page to a female philosopher! They aren't even mentioning women on 99% of the pages while they throw around with names of male philosophers constantly when explaining a topic (which they should, that makes it easier for people to read works in a specific field).
They also never even mention feminist philosophy at all! And what a huge omission that is!
I'm genuinely curious how one can write a summary of the history of philosophy and ommit all female philosophers besides mentioning maybe two women in the entire thing (I remember Julia Kristeva being mentioned). Even for a book from 1998 that is inexcusable.
I mean come on, I could go up to a person with no philosophical knowledge and they would probably be able to tell me about one woman in philosophy. Like Hannah Arendt? To name just one influential female philosopher from my own country as an example. (I have since been disillusioned about this particular point.)
So conclude this: I will not accept the omission of women from academics. This is not a summary of philosophy at all, just male western philosophy. Invest your money and time in better books who acknowledge womens' role in academics. 1 star. Rant over.
Hope the review is coherent. I won't dedicate more time to this book for now. Not even sure if I should keep my copy or what I should with it. (I'll prolly keep it as an example of how not do this.)
Side Note: German translation was pretty good. I was tempted to give it two stars just because of that.
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