Gabrielle Suchon

Gabrielle Suchon
Born(1632-12-24)December 24, 1632
Semur-en-Auxois, France
DiedMarch 5, 1703(1703-03-05) (aged 70)
Dijon, France
Known forProto-feminist philosophy
Notable work
  • Traité de la morale et de la politique (Treatise on Morality and Politics)
  • Du célibat volontaire (On the Celibate Life Freely Chosen)

Gabrielle Suchon (December 24, 1632, in Semur-en-Auxois – March 5, 1703, in Dijon) was a French moral philosopher who participated in debates about the social, political and religious condition of women in the early modern era.[1][2] Her most prominent works are the Traité de la morale et de la politique (Treatise on Morality and Politics) and Du célibat volontaire (On the Celibate Life Freely Chosen).

Suchon is considered the first philosopher to produce a significant body of work dedicated solely to the topic of women.[2] Suchon's writing is unique because she specifically addresses women, as opposed to most moral philosophy of the time, whose primary audience was men.[3] She is considered the only female philosopher of her time without a male intellectual advisor or husband.[2]

In her works, Suchon argues that women are deserving of the natural rights of liberty, learning and authority.[4] She asserts that a woman can live a fulfilling life while unmarried[1] and promotes the power of voluntary celibacy on secular terms.[3][5]

  1. ^ a b "Suchon, Gabrielle (1631–1703) - Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy". www.rep.routledge.com. Retrieved 2018-05-10.
  2. ^ a b c Suchon, Gabrielle (2010). A woman who defends all the persons of her sex : selected philosophical and moral writings. Stanton, Domna C., Wilkin, Rebecca May. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 1–72. ISBN 9780226779232. OCLC 642206246.
  3. ^ a b Desnain, V. (2012-11-15). "Gabrielle Suchon: Militant Philosophy in Seventeenth-Century France" (PDF). Forum for Modern Language Studies. 49 (3): 257–271. doi:10.1093/fmls/cqs030. ISSN 0015-8518.
  4. ^ O’NEILL, EILEEN (1998). "History of Philosophy". Philosophy in a Feminist Voice. Critiques and Reconstructions. Princeton University Press. pp. 17–62. ISBN 9780691019369. JSTOR j.ctt7s6sv.6.
  5. ^ "Gabrielle Suchon | Querelle". querelle.ca. Retrieved 2018-05-17.