Mere Appearance: Redressing the History of Philosophy
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Date
2021-09-13
Authors
Zimmer, Amie
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
The principal aim of this dissertation is to seriously consider what accounts of fashion and dress can offer—have indeed already offered—to philosophy. In recounting these histories, I have two primary goals. The first is to show that, despite the breadth of primary literature on the subject, fashion and dress have not been meaningfully taken up as sites of continuing philosophical inquiry. The second is to provide a foundation upon which continuing work on the subject may be done in the discipline of philosophy. Regarding the first, it will be my contention throughout the dissertation that the philosophical disregard for fashion can indeed be accounted for on philosophical grounds. There are two primary motives accounting for fashion remaining in philosophy’s closet: 1) the metaphysical subordination of appearances to essences; and 2) the feminization of fashion, and subsequent subordination of the feminine within philosophy. It is my view that the “feminization” of fashion, or the designation of clothing as a uniquely feminine concern, has perpetuated its erasure as a meritorious topic of philosophical concern. The five major chapters of the dissertation can be divided into two thematic parts. Section I comprises Chapters II, III, and IV, and centers on the project of “recovery,” or rather, the project of “raiding” philosophy’s closet for new (old) tools to wield in the development of a philosophy of fashion. Section II analyzes just some of the social and political implications of a metaphysical schema in which clothing is made to be “only” or “merely” about the world of appearances.