The Idea of Unlikeness: Kant and Malabou
Abstract
This article examines a relatively recent term in philosophy: the clitoris. In Pleasure Erased: The Clitoris and Thought (2020), French philosopher Catherine Malabou positions this organ as a philosophical concept. The book’s central argument is that the clitoris has been “erased” from the history of philosophy and must be reclaimed, otherwise we risk perpetuating a form of philosophical “clitoridectomy.” This article aims to reinterpret the clitoris as a conceptual metaphor crucial to feminist thought. To explore its epistemic potential, I draw on Kant’s and Hegel’s notions of the minor and the Other, analyze feminist theorist Carla Lonzi’s writings on the clitoris as a site of women’s liberation and her critique of Hegel’s Master-Slave dialectic, and examine the clitoris as an excluded element in Freudian psychoanalysis. The article highlights key points of dialogue between twentieth- and twenty-first-century thinkers—Carla Lonzi, Oxana Timofeeva, and Catherine Malabou—and the philosophies of Kant and Hegel. By introducing this discussion to the Russian-language academic sphere, the paper interrogates contemporary definitions of the “feminine” and explores how the epistemology of the clitoris might integrate into broader philosophical and social science research.
References
Althusser, Louis (2005). «O svyazi mezhdu Marksom i Gegelem. Lektsiya, prochitannaya na seminare Zhana Ippolita v fevrale 1968 g.» V kn.: Lenin i filosofiya. 2005. S. 81–123.
Althusser, Louis (2012). «Preobrazovanie filosofii». Neprikosnovennyy zapas 5 (85). Elektronnyy istochnik: https://www.nlobooks.ru/magazines/neprikosnovennyy_zapas/85_nz_5_2012/article/19040/
Arroyo, Christopher (2017). Kant’s Ethics and the Same-Sex Marriage Debate: An Introduction. Springer.
Bell, Vikki (1993). Interrogating Incest: Feminism, Foucault and the Law. Taylor & Francis Group.
Baskin, Laurence S., Erol, Ali, Ling, Ying Wu, Liu, Wen Hui, Kurzrock, Eric, Gunha, Gerald R. (1999). Anatomical Studies Of The Human Clitoris. URL: doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5347(01)68052-2
Bertin, Celia (1982). Marie Bonaparte: a Life. Harcourt.
Brennan P. L. R., Cowart J. R., Orbach D. N. (2022). “Evidence of a functional clitoris in dolphins.” 10; 32(1): R24-R26. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.11.020. PMID: 35015987.
Bonaparte, Marie (2010). Zhenskaya seksual’nost’. Kul’turnaya initsiativa; Russkiy Mir”.
Botul, Jean-Baptist (2003). «Seksual’naya zhizn’ Immanuila Kanta». Logos 5/6 (35). Elektronnyy istochnik: https://www.ruthenia.ru/logos/number/2002_02/10.htm
Carignani, Paolo (2018): “‘Psyche is extended’: from Kant to Freud.” The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, DOI: 10.1080/00207578.2018.1425876
Comay, Rebecca (2011). Mourning Sickness: Hegel and The French Revolution. Stanford University Press.
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (2015). Fenomenologiya dukha. Nauka.
Heidegger, Martin (1993). «Uchenie Platona ob istine». V kn.: Heidegger, Martin, Vremya i bytie: stat’i i vystupleniya. Respublika. S. 345–360.
Haraway, Donna (2022). «Situativnye znaniya: vopros o nauke v feminizme i preimushchestvo chastichnoy perspektivy». Logos 1 (146): 237–271.
Irigaray, Luce (2001). «Pol, kotoryy ne edinichen». V kn.: Vvedenie v gendernye issledovaniya, pod red. Sergeya Zherebkina, v 2 ch., ch. 2. KhTsGI, Izdatel’stvo «Aleteyya».
Gorsky, Aleksandr (2012). «Ogromnyy ocherk». V kn.: Fallicheskiy zrachok: teurgicheskie ocherki, 9–152. Leonardo.
Gorsky, Aleksandr (2018). Sochineniya i pis’ma, v 2 kn. IMLI RAN.
Descartes, René (1989). Sochineniya, v 2 t., t. 1. Mysl’.
Derrida, Jacques (1991). «Shpory: stili Nitsshe». Filosofskie Nauki 2/3:114–129.
Derrida, Jacques (1999). O pochtovoy otkrytke ot Sokrata do Freyda i ne tol’ko. Sovremennyy literator.
Derrida, Jacques (2000). O grammatologii. Ad Marginem.
Deutsch, Helen (2017). Psikhoanaliz seksual’nykh funktsiy zhenshchin. Izdatel’skie tekhnologii.
Dolar, Mladen (2014). «Atom i pustota — ot Demokrita do Lakana». Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie 6 (130). Elektronnyy istochnik: https://www.nlobooks.ru/magazines/novoe_literaturnoe_obozrenie/130_nlo_6_2014/article/11201/
Lonzi, Carla (1982). Sputiamo su Hegel – La donna clitoridea e la donna vaginale. Gammalibri.
Malabou, Catherine (1996). L’Avenir de Hegel. Libraire Philosophique J. Vrin.
Malabou, Catherine (2020). Le plaisir effacé: Clitoris et pensée. Rivages.
Malabou, Catherine (2023). Stop Thief! Anarchism and Philosophy. Polity Press.
Malabou, Catherine (2022). Stop The Erased Pleasure, Clitoris and Anarchy. Interview with Catherine Malabou. URL: https://lundi.am/Le-plaisir-efface-clitoris-et-anarchie; lundimatin #289.
Mazloomdoost, Donna, Pauls, Rachel N. (2015). “A Comprehensive Review of the Clitoris and Its Role in Female Sexual Function.” Sexual Medicine Reviews, Vol. 3, Issue 4: 245–263. URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/smrj.61
Mayberry, Lorel, Daniel, Jacqueline (2016). “‘Birthgasm’: a Literary Review of Orgasm
as an Alternative Mode of Pain Relief in Childbirth.” Journal of Holistic Nursing. 34.4:331-342.
Moore, Alison M. (2018). “Victorian Medicine Was Not Responsible for Repressing the Clitoris: Rethinking Homology in the Long History of Women’s Genital Anatomy.” DOI:10.1086/698277, Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2018, vol. 44, no. 1
Nussbaum, Martha (1999). Sex and Social Justice. Oxford Press
Kant, Immanuel (1966). «Antropologiya s pragmaticheskoy tochki zreniya». V kn.: Kant, Immanuel, Sochineniya, v 6 tomakh, t. 6. Mysl’. S. 349–588.
Kant, Immanuel (1966b). Kritika prakticheskogo razuma. V kn.: Kant, Immanuel, Sochineniya, v 6 tomakh, t. 4, chast’ I. Mysl’. S. 311–504.
Kant, Immanuel (1966c). Ideya vseobshchey istorii vo vsemirno-grazhdanskom plane. V kn.: Kant, Immanuel, Sochineniya, v 6 tomakh, t. 6. Mysl’. S. 6–24.
Kant, Immanuel (1963). «Vseobshchaya estestvennaya istoriya i teoriya neba». V kn.: Kant, Immanuel, Sochineniya, v 6 tomakh, t. 1. Mysl’. S. 115–262.
Kant, Immanuel (1994). Kritika sposobnosti suzhdeniya. Iskusstvo.
Kant, Immanuel (1964). «Nablyudeniya nad chuvstvom prekrasnogo i vozvyshennogo» // Kant I. Sochineniya v 6 tomakh. T. 2. «Mysl’», 1964.
Kant, Immanuel (1996). “Metaphysics of Morals.” In Practical Philosophy. Trans. and ed. Mary J. Gregor, 353–603. Cambridge University Press.
Kant, Immanuel (1997) . “Collins Lecture Notes.” In Lectures on Ethics, Ed. J. B. Schneewind and Peter Heath, 37–222. Cambridge University Press.
Kapp, Ernst (2015). Grundlinien einer Philosophie der Technik: Zur Entstehungsgeschichte der Kultur aus neuen Gesichtspunkten. Meiner.
Kostyleva, Elena (2024). «K trem tezisam o psikhoanalize Aleksandra Gorskogo». Logos, 34.5. S. 115–142.
Lacan, Jacques (2011). Eshche. Seminariy: Kniga XX (1972/73). Gnozis, Logos.
Lévi-Strauss, Claude (2001). Strukturnaya antropologiya. Izd-vo EKSMO-Press.
Magun, Artemiy (2011). Edinstvo i odinochestvo: Kurs politicheskoy filosofii Novogo vremeni. Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie.
Martynova, Nadezhda (2024). «Gnoseologiya zhenskoy seksual’nosti: diskussiya o vaginal’noy i klitoral’noy seksual’nosti». Natsional’noe zdorov’e 3. S. 38–42.
Mauss, Marcel (1996). «Ocherk o dare». V kn.: Mauss, Marcel, Obshchestva. Obmen. Lichnost’, 85–111. Vostochnaya literatura.
Nancy, Jean-Luc (1999). Corpus. Ad Marginem.
Platon (1994). «Parmenid». V kn.: Sobranie sochineniy, v 4 t., t. 2. Mysl’. Podoroga, Valeriy. «Velikiy strakh. Kant chitaet Berka (k dekonstruktsii vozvyshennogo)». Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie 162 (2). S. 11–28.
Rubin, Gayle (2000). «Obmen zhenshchinami. Zametki o “politicheskoy ekonomii” pola». V kn.: Khrestomatiya feministkikh tekstov. Perevody, pod red. Eleny Zdravomyslovoy i Anny Temkinoy. Izdatel’stvo «Dmitriy Bulanin». S. 99–113.
Sedykh, Oksana, Khamenkov, Maksim (2016). «Organoproektsiya: russkiy kontekst». Filosofiya nauki i tekhniki t. 21, N 1. S. 132–151.
Sophocles (1990). Dramy. Nauka.
Timofeeva, Oksana (2022). Eto ne to. Izdatel’stvo Ivana Limbakha.
Foucault, Michel (1976). Histoire de la sexualité, Vol. 1: La volonté de savoir.. Gallimard.
Foucault, Michel (1984a). Histoire de la sexualité, Vol. 2: L’usage des plaisirs. Gallimard.
Foucault, Michel (1984b). Histoire de la sexualité, Vol. 3: Le souci de soi. Gallimard.
Foucault, Michel (2018). Histoire de la sexualité, Vol. 4: Les aveux de la chair. Gallimard.
Freud, Sigmund (1997). «Nekotorye psikhicheskie sledstviya anatomicheskogo razlichiya polov». V kn.: Psikhoanaliticheskie etyudy. Popurri. S. 549–558.
Freud, Sigmund (1990). «Ob osobom tipe “vybora ob”ekta” u muzhchiny». V kn.: Ocherki po psikhologii seksual’nosti, 65–68. BelSE.
Freud, Sigmund (1992). «Otritsanie». V kn.: von Zacher-Mazokh, Leopold, Deleuze, Gilles, Freud, Sigmund, Venera v mekhakh: Sbornik rabot, 365–371. Kul’tura.
Freud, Sigmund (2000). Tolkovanie snovideniy. Akademicheskiy proekt.
Freud, Sigmund (2006). «Tri ocherka po teorii seksual’nosti». V kn.: Sochineniya, tom 5: Seksual’naya zhizn’. OOO «Firma STD». S. 319–445.
Freud, Sigmund (2008). «Totem i tabu». V kn.: Sochineniya, tom 9: Voprosy obshchestva. Proiskhozhdenie religii, 287–444. OOO «Firma STD».
Freud, Sigmund (2016). «Chelovek Moisey i monoteisticheskaya religiya: tri ocherka» V kn.: Khrestomatiya, v 3 t., t. 2: Voprosy obshchestva i proiskhozhdenie religii, 319–445. Kogito-Tsentr.
Freud, Sigmund (1992). «Nedovol’stvo kul’turoy». V kn.: Freud, Sigmund, Psikhoanaliz. Religiya. Kul’tura. Renessans. S. 65–134.
Freud, Sigmund (1941). “Findings, Ideas, Problems.” S.E. 23: 299–300.
Rinne, Pärttyli (2018). Kant on Love. De Gruyter.
Thompson, Nellie (2003). “Marie Bonaparte’s Theory of Female Sexuality: Fantasy and Biology.” American Imago 60 (3):. 343-378.
Timofeeva, Oxana (2024). “Peace to the world.” e-flux. URL: https://www.e-flux.com/notes/584642/peace-to-the-world
Timofeeva, Oxana (2022). “Hegel’s Enlightenment and the Dialectics of Vulva.” Praktyka Teoretyczna 1(43): 19–28. doi: 10.19195/prt.2022.1.2
Reinhardt, O. Oldroyd, D. R. (1983). “Kant’s theory of earthquakes and volcanic action.” Annals of Science, 40(3): 247–272. doi:10.1080/00033798300200221
Varden, Helga (2017). “Kant and Women.” Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 98: 653–694. doi: 10.1111/papq.12103.
Voltaire (1997). Izbrannye sochineniya. RIPOL KLASSIK
Whipple, B., Komisaruk, B. R. (1988). “Analgesia produced in women by genital self-stimulation.” The Journal of Sex Research, 24 (1): 130–140. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224498809551403
Zvereva, Ekaterina, Bessalova, Evgeniya (2016). «Istoriya izucheniya shishkovidnogo tela: mezhdu mifologiey i naukoy». Krymskiy zhurnal eksperimental'noy i klinicheskoy meditsiny, t. 6, N 3. S. 186–193
Copyright (c) 2025 Stasis
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
