[eBook] [PDF] For Korean Women Philosophers and the Ideal of a Female Sage 1st Edition By Philip Ivanhoe

[eBook] [PDF] For Korean Women Philosophers and the Ideal of a Female Sage 1st Edition By Philip Ivanhoe

Korean Women Philosophers and the Ideal of a Female Sage introduces the lives and ideas of two female Korean Confucian philosophers from the late Joseon Dynasty (18th-19th century), Im Yunjidang (1721-1793) and Gang Jeongildang (1772-1832), examining how their writings contribute to contemporary philosophical inquiry. Both philosophers are known for arguing that women are as capable as men of attaining the highest forms of intellectual and moral achievement and thereby can become female sages (yeoseong), with their reasoning building on distinctively Confucian philosophical claims about the original, pure moral nature shared by all human beings.

Hwa Yeong Wang and Philip J. Ivanhoe provide an analysis of the social, political, and historical factors that surrounded these women and informed their writing. This volume explores how these female philosophers navigated the challenges presented by the extensively patriarchal culture in which they lived. Im Yunjidang and Gang Jeongildang’s resistance and response to the patriarchal context of late Joseon society informs the content and style of their writing, producing original philosophical ideas that remain of great value to the field today.