This book advances the rediscovery of forgotten women philosophers in the nineteenth century who have been unjustly left out of the philosophical canon and omitted from narratives about the history of philosophy. Women often did philosophy in a public setting in this period, engaging with practical issues of social concern and using philosophy to make the world a better place. This book highlights some of women’s interventions against slavery, for women’s rights, and on morality, moral agency, and the conditions of a flourishing life. The chapters are on: Mary Shepherd’s idea of life; the collaborative authorships and feminist perspectives of Anna Doyle Wheeler and Harriet Taylor Mill; the roles of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott in the American women’s rights movement; the influence of classical German philosophy on Lydia Maria Child’s abolitionism; George Eliot’s understanding of agency; the views of agency and resistance developed by Harriet Tubman and Elizabeth from within the abolitionist tradition; Annie Besant’s search for a metaphysical basis for ethics, which she ultimately found in Hinduism; E. E. Constance Jones on the dualism of practical reason; Marietta Kies on altruism and positive rights; and Anna Julia Cooper’s black feminist conception of the right to growth. The book unearths an important and neglected chapter in the history of women philosophers, showing the variety and vitality of nineteenth-century women’s intellectual lives. Nineteenth-Century Women Philosophers in Britain and America will be of great use to students and researchers interested in Philosophy, Women’s Studies, and the politics of gender at the heart of British and American societies. This book was originally published as a special issue of British Journal for the History of Philosophy.

Charlotte Alderwick presents Schelling's ontology as fundamentally power-based and demonstrates that this ontology enables his unique conception of human freedom outlined in the Freedom essay, thereby providing a novel interpretation of his metaphysics and conception of freedom.This distinctive reading demonstrates that Schelling's power-based ontology can usefully problematise and supplement contemporary work on power-based ontologies. Firstly, where current work focuses on powers in relation to specific areas of metaphysics, Schelling provides a holistic picture, encompassing these areas into a single ontological story. Secondly, engagement with Schelling's work points to problems (though also to possible solutions) that will arise for any power-based metaphysics, but are currently unexamined in the literature.

Charlotte Alderwick presents Schelling's ontology as fundamentally power-based. She demonstrates that this ontology enables his unique conception of human freedom outlined in the 'Freedom' essay. This distinctive reading demonstrates that Schelling's power-based ontology can usefully problematise and supplement contemporary work on power-based ontologies. First, where current work focuses on powers in relation to specific areas of metaphysics, Schelling provides a holistic picture, encompassing these areas into a single ontological story. Secondly, engagement with Schelling's work points to problems (and to possible solutions) that will arise for any power-based metaphysics, but have not been examined in the literature.