Table Of ContentSPRINGER BRIEFS IN HISTORY OF SCIENCE
AND TECHNOLOGY
Zdeňka Jastrzembská
Dagmar Pichová
Jan Zouhar
Czech Women
Philosophers
and Scientists
SpringerBriefs in History of Science
and Technology
SeriesEditors
GerardAlberts,UniversityofAmsterdam,Amsterdam,TheNetherlands
TheodoreArabatzis,UniversityofAthens,Athens,Greece
BretislavFriedrich,FritzHaberInstitutderMaxPlanckGesellschaft,Berlin,
Germany
UlfHashagen,DeutschesMuseum,Munich,Germany
DieterHoffmann,Max-Planck-InstitutefortheHistoryofScience,Berlin,Germany
SimonMitton,UniversityofCambridge,Cambridge,UK
DavidPantalony,UniversityofOttawa,Ottawa,ON,Canada
MatteoValleriani,Max-Planck-InstitutefortheHistoryofScience,Berlin,
Germany
Moreinformationaboutthisseriesat http://www.springer.com/series/10085
· ·
Zdenˇka Jastrzembská Dagmar Pichová
Jan Zouhar
Czech Women Philosophers
and Scientists
ZdenˇkaJastrzembská DagmarPichová
DepartmentofPhilosophy DepartmentofPhilosophy
FacultyofArts FacultyofArts
MasarykUniversity MasarykUniversity
Brno,CzechRepublic Brno,CzechRepublic
JanZouhar
DepartmentofPhilosophy
FacultyofArts
MasarykUniversity
Brno,CzechRepublic
ISSN2211-4564 ISSN2211-4572 (electronic)
SpringerBriefsinHistoryofScienceandTechnology
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Acknowledgements
We owe a debt of gratitude to Ruth Hagengruber from the Center for the History
ofWomenPhilosophersandScientistsatPaderbornUniversity,whoencouragedus
to start the research on Czech women philosophers and scientists. Researchers at
theCenterfortheHistoryofWomenPhilosophersandScientists—AnaRodrigues,
Stefanie Ertz, Julia Lerius, and Andrea Reichenberger—helped us discuss various
aspects of the project during the Paderborn seminar on women philosophers and
scientists in May 2018. The volume in preparation was presented and discussed
at the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Wroclaw during the workshop
organisedbyAgnieszkaBandurainNovember2018andatthe17thIAPhconference
atTsinghuaUniversityinBeijinginAugust2018.WewouldliketothankHertaNagl-
Docekal(UniversityofVienna),MaryEllenWaithe(UniversityofCleveland)andour
colleaguesfromMasarykUniversity,particularlyRadimBeˇlohrad,RadimBrázda,
JakubMácha,DenisaNecˇasová,HelenaPavlincová,MarekPicha,andDanielŠpelda,
fortheirhelpfulcommentsontheproject.
Thecompletionofthemanuscriptwaspossiblethankstotheeffortsofourtrans-
latorPetraTrávníkováandproofreaderAnneJohnson.Wewouldliketoalsothank
JanaSvobodováandDanicaJežováfortheirhelpwiththebibliography,nameindex,
andmanuscriptediting.
TheresearchwasfinanciallysupportedbytheCzechScienceFoundation,within
theproject‘CzechWomenPhilosophersandScientists’(GA17-06697S).
v
Contents
1 Introduction ................................................... 1
1.1 Methodology .............................................. 1
1.2 Bibliography ............................................... 3
References ..................................................... 5
2 Beforethe1820s:SettingtheStageforWomen’sIntellectual
Progress ....................................................... 7
2.1 EarliestPeriod ............................................. 7
2.2 RenaissanceandReformation ................................ 10
2.3 BaroqueandClassicism ..................................... 13
References ..................................................... 17
3 1820s–1918:AnExpansionofWomen’sIntellectualPursuits ....... 19
3.1 TheNeedsoftheNationalRevival ............................ 19
3.2 WomenSupportingMen’sVirtuesandHappiness ............... 24
3.3 WomenandRomanticScience ............................... 29
3.4 Education,Duty,andHappiness .............................. 38
3.5 FirstUniversityGraduates ................................... 45
References ..................................................... 54
4 CzechWomeninPhilosophyandScienceSince1918 ............... 57
4.1 IntheSpiritoftheFirstRepublic ............................. 57
4.1.1 HistoricalandSocialContext .......................... 57
4.1.2 PrivateFemaleResearchersinContactwithScientific
Institutions .......................................... 63
4.1.3 WomenatUniversities ................................ 67
4.1.4 SolitaryFemaleThinkers .............................. 73
4.2 SecondWorldWar .......................................... 76
4.3 RiseofCommunistIdeology ................................. 81
4.3.1 HistoricalandSocialContext .......................... 81
4.3.2 InvolvementWithinAcademicInstitutions ............... 84
4.3.3 EmigrantsandDissidents ............................. 96
References ..................................................... 101
vii
viii Contents
5 Conclusion .................................................... 105
HistoricalTimeline ................................................ 107
Index ............................................................. 113
About the Authors
ZdenˇkaJastrzembská isanAssistantProfessorattheDepartmentofPhilosophy,
Masaryk University in Brno (Czech Republic). She specialises in epistemology,
methodology and philosophy of science, with a particular emphasis upon theories
ofcausationandexplanation.HerpublicationsincludeKauzálníaspektyvysveˇtlení
[Causal Aspects of Explanation] (2007), Aspekty vysveˇtlení: hledání explanacˇních
znalostí [Aspects of Explanation: Searching for Explanatory Knowledge] (2009),
‘Perspektivistická genealogie kauzality’ [‘The Perspectival Genealogy of Causa-
tion’] Organon F, Vol. 17, No. 4 (2010), and ‘Spor o vivisekce a cˇeské ženy na
prˇelomu19.a20.století’[‘TheControversyoverVivisectionandCzechWomenat
theTurnofthetwentiethCentury’]Teorieveˇdy,Vol.39,No.2(2017).
DagmarPichová is an Associate Professor at the Department of Philosophy,
MasarykUniversityinBrno(CzechRepublic).Inherscientificandresearchactiv-
ities, she focuses on the history of women philosophers and 18th century French
philosophyandliterature.SheistheauthorofÉmilieDuChâtelet,femmedelettres
(2018),‘ÉmilieDuChâtelet:devenirfemmedelettres.’InLaconditiondesfemmes
dans l’Europe du XVIIIe siècle. Lumières, n° 24 (2015), 100 myšlenkových exper-
imentu˚ ve filozofii [100 Thought Experiments in Philosophy] (with Marek Picha,
2013), and La communication ironique dans Le Roman comique de Paul Scarron.
ÉtudecomparativeavecDonQuichottedeCervantès(2007).
JanZouhar isaProfessorattheDepartmentofPhilosophy,MasarykUniversityin
Brno(CzechRepublic).AneminentspecialistonCzechphilosophy,hehaspublished
many books and articles devoted to the discipline, e.g., Cˇeská filosofie v letech
1945–1948[CzechPhilosophy1945–1948](withHelenaPavlincováandJirˇíGabriel,
2013),Cˇeskáfilozofievšedesátýchletech[CzechPhilosophyinthe1960s](2009),O
Masarykovi[OnMasaryk](2009),Deˇjinycˇeskéhofilozofickéhomyšlenídoroku1968
[HistoryofCzechPhilosophicalThinkingto1968](2008),Cˇeskáfilosofievletech
protektorátu [Czech Philosophy during the Protectorate] (with Helena Pavlincová
and Jiˇrí Gabriel, 2007), and ‘On Contemporary Czech Philosophy’ In Philosophy
Worldwide:CurrentSituation (2007).
ix
Chapter 1
Introduction
Thelastfewdecadeshavewitnessedanincreasinginterestinthehistoryofwomen
philosophersandscientistsinvariousculturalcontexts.Sincethepioneeringedition
ofAHistoryofWomenPhilosophers(1987–1995)byMaryEllenWaithe,historical
researchhasshonealightonmanywomenwhoseworkwasunjustlydisregarded.It
isouraimtocontributetotheresearchcompletingthegapsinthetraditionalhistory
ofphilosophyandsciencebyturningattentiontothewomenintheCzechterritory.
ThisvolumepresentsanoverviewofthemostimportantCzechwomenphiloso-
phersandscientists,focusingonthecontextoftheirlivesandwork.Westressthe
complexconditionsofwomeninCzechhistoryinrelationtothepositionoflearned
womeninotherEuropeancountries.Themaingoalistopresentasystematicdescrip-
tionoftheimpactofwomenonthehistoryofCzechphilosophyandscience,based
on the analyses of their works and the characteristics of contemporary debates in
whichtheyparticipated.
1.1 Methodology
Before we present a chronological overview, it is necessary to introduce the main
axesoftheresearchanddescribethemethodologyapplied.Althoughourmaingoal
is the work and activities of women in the field of philosophy, we aim to study
womeninbothphilosophyandsciencebecauseofthecommonhistoryofthesetwo
approachestotheworldanditsinterpretation;afterall,themodernnotionofscience
hasbeeninuseonlysincethe1700s.WepresenttheactivitiesofCzechwomenin
a variety of academic fields, including humanities, natural sciences, and technical
disciplines.
©TheAuthor(s),underexclusivelicencetoSpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG2021 1
Z.Jastrzembskáetal.,CzechWomenPhilosophersandScientists,
SpringerBriefsinHistoryofScienceandTechnology,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61516-1_1
