Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Le Doeuff and History of Philosophy / Genevieve Lloyd -- 2. Socrates and his Twins (The Socrates(es) of Plato's 'Symposium') / Sarah Kofman -- 3. Sorcerer Love: A Reading of Plato's 'Symposium': Diotima's Speech / Luce Irigaray -- 4. Feminism and Aristotle's Rational Ideal / Marcia L. Homiak -- 5. Therapeutic Arguments and the Structures of Desire / Martha Nussbaum -- 6. The Passions and Philosophy / Susan James -- 7. Selections from 'The Flight to Objectivity' / Susan Bordo -- 8. Princess Elisabeth and Descartes: The Union of Soul and Body and the Practice of Philosophy / Lisa Shapiro -- 9. Spinoza on the Pathos of Idolatrous Love and the Hilarity of True Love / Amelie Oskenberg Rorty -- 10. Hume, the Woman's Moral Theorist / Annette Baier --11. Agency, Attachment, and Difference / Barbara Herman -- 12. On Hegel, Women, and Irony / Seyla Benhabib -- 13. 'We are not Sublime', Love and Sacrifice, Abraham and Ourselves / Sylvia Agacinski -- 14. 'Is it not remarkable that Nietzsche . . . should have hated Rousseau?' Woman, Femininity: Distancing Nietzsche from Rousseau / Penelope Deutscher.

This edited collection of essays explores the ways in which we can interpret past philosophical texts from a feminist perspective. Drawn together within a chronological framework, pieces by leading feminist critics, such as Luce Irigaray and Martha Nussbaum, reveal the fresh perspectives that feminism can offer to the discussion of past philosophers.