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Scholars and professionals take a second look at “The Second Sex” by Celena E. Kusch
Artist Dave Maser’s rendering of Simone de Beauvoir portrait from a photo	French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir surprised many when she wrote, “I have hesitated for a long time to write a book on woman. The subject is irritating, especially for women; and it isn’t novel. The debate about feminism has spilled enough ink, and right now it is almost exhausted: one doesn’t talk about it any more. And yet, one does still talk about it. Indeed, the lengthy idiocies poured out during the last century don’t seem to have shed much light on the problem.” Few would expect such lines to come from one of the 20th century’s leading champions of feminist philosophy, yet they stand as the opening of her foundational work in feminist theory The Second Sex. For all of Beauvoir’s seeming reluctance to write this “book on woman” though, The Second Sex became a fundamental text for 20th-century feminist theory. By reading Beauvoir, many people, both men and women, of the postwar generation discovered new possibilities for thinking about gender, humanity and society. Last year marked the 50th anniversary of the work. In November 1999, Penn State hosted the Legacies of Simone de Beauvoir conference in celebration of this anniversary. The conference attracted more than 100 national and international scholars from a variety of disciplines, as well as professionals, legislators, labor organizers and women’s group representatives familiar with Beauvoir’s work. Penn State faculty members Dr. Emily Grosholz, professor of philosophy and African American studies; Dr. Susan Schoenbohm, senior lecturer of philosophy and women’s studies; and Dr. Shannon Sullivan, assistant professor of philosophy and women’s studies, co-chaired the conference. Like much feminist philosophy, the conference provided an opportunity to bridge both academic and nonacademic audiences. Grosholz explained the value of this interaction and dialogue in advancing the work of scholars and working people alike: “Practical wisdom requires theoretical wisdom, for without the critical, systematic reflectiveness of theory, practice loses its way and becomes dogmatic and nearsighted.” According to Sullivan, conference planners worked “deliberately to draw nonacademic professionals who had read Beauvoir in college. The conference gave them a chance to come back and think about her work in a new perspective. At the same time, it allowed scholars to reach out to professional women who were influenced by Beauvoir’s work.” In addition to its focus on public appeal, the conference invited a new generation of scholars to the discussion of Beauvoir and philosophical feminism by offering them exposure to some of the world’s most distinguished Beauvoir scholars. In their presentations, leading theorists clarified the scholarly reception of Beauvoir as a thinker and demonstrated the compelling richness of contemporary work in philosophical feminism. The keynote speaker was Dr. Hazel Barnes, Robert B. Hawkins Distinguished Professor of Humanities Emerita at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her talk drew upon her long acquaintance with Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sartre. Sullivan remarked, “Barnes is only eight years younger than Beauvoir, and her keynote address talked about what it was like to be a woman working in philosophy in the early ’40s. It was autobiographical, dynamic and cogent, a nice tribute to Beauvoir and to the challenges Beauvoir faced.” She also noted that Barnes’ address was particularly important for the many young scholars in attendance, since so much has changed during the past 50 years. For many Penn State graduate students, the Beauvoir event provided an opportunity to attend their first scholarly conference. Conference organizers further encouraged the participation of younger scholars through a series of concurrent presentations and panels highlighting the scholarship of graduate students and junior faculty whose work will take up the question of women long into the new millennium. According to Sullivan, the range of several generations of conferees enriched the discussion and dialogue about Beauvoir’s work. “One of the speakers spoke about being a granddaughter of Beauvoir’s work in the context of carrying out her legacy as a teacher and woman today,” Sullivan noted. But the greatest success of the conference, Sullivan said, was to focus attention on the serious philosophical legacy of Beauvoir’s work. “Beauvoir is often read by activists more than by philosophers. Along with its focus on attracting a broader audience, this conference is also about laying claim to Beauvoir’s place in the philosophical canon,” Sullivan said. Philosophers from Duke University, the University of Cambridge, the École Normale Supérieure (Paris), the Australian National University and the University of British Columbia, each in her own way, tried to show how “the question of woman” raises new issues that are centrally important to philosophy. For all of them, Beauvoir served as the essential precedent. Starting off the conference, Dr. Toril Moi, professor of literature and Romance studies at Duke University, analyzed the many errors in the sole English translation of The Second Sex. This translation makes mistakes that reverse the sense of important passages, obliterates important philosophical references and leaves out long sections without comment or footnote. Three presenters at the conference are now spearheading an initiative to persuade Gallimard and Knopf/Random House to entertain a new translation and comprehensive annotated edition of The Second Sex, which should transform the way in which this important book is used and understood. Two further projected projects stemming from the conference are a special issue of the Journal of Speculative Philosophy (to be edited by Schoenbohm and Sullivan) and a collection of essays (to be edited by Grosholz). The conference highlighted the increasing recognition of the importance of feminist thought in the United States and at Penn State: more than half the participants came from the wider community. Penn State University also gained recognition as the only U.S. institution to celebrate the anniversary of The Second Sex. Reports about the conference appeared in The Chicago Tribune, the Journal of Phenomenology and the American Philosophical Association Newsletter on Feminism. Internally, Sullivan remarked, the conference successfully linked Penn State faculty across disciplines. “The conference was a nice place for people at Penn State to come together to discuss feminism. Many different department heads and faculty from a variety of disciplines attended and showed their support,” she said. The conference was made possible by the support of the following Penn State units: the departments of Philosophy, French, English, History, Political Science, Sociology and Comparative Literature, the Women’s Studies Program and the Research and Graduate Studies Office in the College of the Liberal Arts; the Institute for the Arts and Humanistic Studies; the University Office of International Programs; The Schreyer Honors College; and Outreach and Cooperative Extension’s Program Innovation Fund. An outreach program of the College of the Liberal Arts
	History and Philosophy of Mathematics conferences lead to book The Growth of Mathematical Knowledge was published in February by Kluwer Academic Publishers in its series The Synthèse Library, devoted to the history and philosophy of science. This book grew out of two conferences on the history and philosophy of mathematics held at Penn State in 1995 and 1996, which were generously supported by Penn State’s Division of Continuing Education. Dr. Emily Grosholz, professor of philosophy and African American studies, wrote the introduction to the book, which brings into relation essays by 27 philosophers and historians of mathematics from 10 different countries. The book was edited jointly by Grosholz and Dr. Herbert Breger, director of the Leibniz Archives in Hannover, Germany, as part of a three-year TransAtlantic Cooperation Grant from the Humboldt Foundation and the German-American Academic Council Foundation. The book also was made possible by the support of Penn State’s Division of Continuing Education.