This new collection of essays highlights the positive contributions that feminism can make to the history of philosophy. Drawn together within a chronological framework, pieces by leading feminist critics, such as Luce Irigaray and Martha Nussbaum, reveal the fresh perspectives that feminism can offer to the discussion of past philosophers, such as Plato, Spinoza, and Nietzsche. Rather than defining itself through opposition to a ''male'' philosophical tradition, feminist philosophy emerges not only as an exciting new contribution to the history of philosophy, but also as a source of cultural self-understanding in the present.