Virtue Ethics and the Origins of Feminism: the Case of Christine de Pizan

Abstract

The aims of this chapter are threefold. The first is to outline the importance of the tradition of virtue ethics for the origins of feminist thought. The second is to suggest a fertile avenue for the philosophical exploration of the works of late medieval and early modern women writers by considering the works of Christine de Pizan (1364–1430). The last aim of this chapter is to contribute to the emerging field of the history of women’s ideas in which female philosophers are read not as mere appendages to the male thinkers of their period, but rather as having contributed to a distinctive strand in the history of ideas.