Gender scholarship during the last four decades has shown that the exclusion of women's voices and perspectives has diminished academic disciplines in important ways. Traditional scholarship in philosophy is no different. The 'recovery project' in philosophy is engaged in re-discovering the names, lives, texts, and perspectives of women philosophers from the 6th Century BCE to the present. Karen Warren brings together 16 colleagues for a unique, groundbreaking study of Western philosophy which combines pairs of leading men and women philosophers over the past 2600 years, acknowledging and evaluating their contributions to foundational themes in philosophy, including epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics. Introductory essays, primary source readings, and commentaries comprise each chapter to offer a rich and accessible introduction to and evaluation of these vital philosophical contributions. A helpful appendix canvasses an extraordinary number of women philosophers for further discovery and study.

Contributions by: Therese Boos Dykeman, Eve Browning, Judith Chelius Stark, Jane Duran, Marilyn Fischer, Lois Frankel, Edward Fullbrook, Jo Ellen Jacobs, Vicki Harper, Joy Laine, Kate Lindemann, Elizabeth K. Minnich, Andrea Nye, Margaret Simons, Audun Solli, Catherine Villanueva Gardner, Mary Ellen Waithe, Karen J. Warren, Henry West