| This study was first conceived more than six years ago, out of my growing sense that a variety of intellectual currents, in philosophy, cultural history, and feminism, were converging around issues concerning the birth of modern science. Since then, the central ideas of the study have been refracted through the perspectives of many friends, colleagues, and students. All the intellectual communities that I have worked within have influenced my thinking and thus shaped this work: the philosophy department of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, the Federated Learning Communities of SUNY/Stony Brook, the philosophy department of Le Moyne College, and the community of feminist scholars, which extends across disciplines and departments. |
| When the ideas of this study were still inchoate, the empathic insights and philosophical imaginations of Patrick Hill, C. Lee Miller, and Mario Moussa provided the encouragement without which the study probably would not have been continued. C. Lee Miller read and provided extensive, detailed, and enormously helpful comments on the first draft. Patrick Hill, Janice McLane, Mario Moussa, Edward Casey, Robert Neville, and Rose Zimbardo also provided invaluable criticism and support at this stage. |
| Between the first and second drafts, the central "argument" of the study was distilled into an article, "The Cartesian Masculinization of Thought," which was published in Signs (Volume 11, Number 3). Those who helped me prepare and revise that article Mario Moussa, Carolyn Merchant, Barbara Gelpi, and Mary Wyer also helped me to crystallize the ideas of the larger study. In Spring 1985, I participated, as a Visiting Scholar, in the "Feminist Reconstructions of Self and Society'' seminar at Douglass College, Rutgers University; our stimulating weekly meetings, and the encouragement and insight of Alison Jaggar in particular, informed and motivated me in writing the second draft. That draft was carefully read by Mario Moussa, who helped me to discern certain key themes that had not been adequately brought out, and who provided many useful stylistic and philosophical suggestions. I am grateful for his support and advice at all stages of this project. |
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