The Accomplishment of Women in Early Modern Philosophy

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The Accomplishment of Women in Early Modern
Philosophy

• Dr. Peter S. Fosl
• Department of Philosophy
• Transylvania University

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Thank you.
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What Im Going to Do

• I. Introduce some of the important women in early
  modern philosophy
• II. Tell you about a few of them and their
  accomplishment in more detail
• III. Discuss some questions related to their
  standing--then and now

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Aspasia (5th century BCE)
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Hypatia of Alexandria (370-415)
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Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)
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Dorotea Bucca Bocchi (c1360s-1436)

• Succeeded her father in medicine and moral
  philosophy at the University of Bologna, Italy,
  in 1390
• Perhaps the first female professor of philosophy

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Christine de Pisan (1365-1430)
The Treasure of the City of Ladies (1405)
The Book of the City of Ladies (1405)
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Christine de Pisan (1365-1430)

• Reared in court of Charles V, France
• Widowed at 25
• Dependents led her to take up the role of a
  man--writing
• Became famous
• Never remarried
• Died in a convent

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Christine de Pisan (1365-1430)

• Argues for education of women
• Domestic abuse
• Whether women invite rape
• The unwelcome female newborn
• Christian ethics
• Women as rulers

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Anna Maria van Schurman (1607-78)
The Learned Maid, or Whether a Maid Be a Scholar?
(1659)
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Anna Maria van Schurman (1607-78)

• Renowned for her scholarly ability
• Especially languages, including Ethiopian
• A close acquaintance of Descartes
• Breaks with him over religious issues
• Ends life in convent of Elisabeth of Bohemia

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Elisabeth of Bohemia (1618-80)
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Elisabeth of Bohemia (1618-80)

• Princess Palatine
• Nickname, la greque
• Correspondence with Descartes
• He dedicates to her his Principles of Philosophy
  (1644)

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Elisabeth of Bohemia (1618-80)

• Part of Descartess 1645 letters to her became
  part of his Passions of the Soul (1646)
• Corresponded with Leibniz
• Criticisms of Descartess dualism

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Magaret CavendishDuchess of Newcastle (1623-73)
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Magaret CavendishDuchess of Newcastle (1623-73)

• Spouse of prominent Royalist lord
• Exiled in Paris and Antwerp
• Aka Mad Madge
• Among the most prolific writers of the 17th
  century

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Magaret CavendishDuchess of Newcastle (1623-73)

• Philosophicall Fancies (1653)
• The Philosophical and Physical Opinions (1655)
• Observations upon Experimental Philosophy. To
  which is Added the Description of a Blazing New
  World (1666)

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Magaret CavendishDuchess of Newcastle (1623-73)

• Her work addresses that of figures such as
  Descartes, Hobbes, Boyle, van Helmont, and More
• Critique of matter
• Inanimate matter to rational, self-moving matter

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Queen Kristina of Sweden (1626-89)
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Anne Finch, Viscountess Conway (1631-78)
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Conways home, Ragley Hall
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Anne Finch Conway (1631-78)

• Raised and tutored by a wealthy family
• A supportive brother and husband
• Tutored by famous Cambridge Platonist Henry More

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Anne Finch Conway (1631-78)

• Her physician Francis Mercury van Helmont also a
  famous philosopher
• Hermetic tradition and Kabbalah
• Converts to Quakerism

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Anne Finch Conway (1631-78)

• The Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern
  Philosophy, concerning God, Christ, and the
  Creatures, viz., Spirit and Matter in General
  (1690)
• Copy to Leibniz
• Leibnizs monad

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Conways Ideas

• Vitalism
• Rejection of the dualism of matter and mind
• Quasi-evolutionary view of spiritual advancement
  from brute matter

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To his heroine pupil Henry More said
You are one whose Genius I know to be so
speculative, and Wit so penetrant, that in the
knowledge of all things as well Natural as
Devine, you have not only outgone all of your own
Sex, but even of that other also, whose ages have
not given them over-much on you.
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Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia (1646-84)

• First woman to receive a doctorate in philosophy
• University of Padua, Italy, 1678
• Defense of two Aristotelian theses
• Never married
• Became a Benedictine oblate.

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Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648-1695)
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Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648-1695)

• Illegitimate and poor
• Self-taught
• At 15 she debated forty professors
• Famous salon library, publishes
• 1693 bishop ordered her to cease

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Damaris Cudworth, Lady Masham (1659-1708)

• Daughter of Cambridge Platonist Ralph Cudworth
• Intimate, lifelong friend of John Locke
• 1689 Locke lives with her his last13 yrs
• Important correspondence with Leibniz

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Lady Masham (1659-1708)

• A Discourse concerning the Love of God (1696)
• Occasional Thoughts in Reference to a Vertuous or
  Christian Life (1705)

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Mary Astell (1666-1731)

• Daughter of wealthy coal merchant
• Largely self-taught
• Lived in the company of women
• Founded a chartity school for girls in Chelsea

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Mary Astell (1666-1731)

• Some Reflections upon Marriage (1670)
• A Serious Proposal to the Ladies I II (1694
  97)
• Severe critic of then-existing institution of
  marriage

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Catherine Trotter Cockburn (1679-1749)
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Catherine Trotter Cockburn (1679-1749)

• Daughter of sea captain whose wealth was lost
  when he died
• From age 17 supplemented family income through
  writing plays

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Catherine Trotter Cockburn (1679-1749)

• A Defence of Mr. Lockes Essay of Human
  Understanding (1702)
• Also wrote philosophy of religion and defended
  Samuel Clarke

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Gabrielle-Émilie du Chatelet-Lomont (1706-49)
Companion of Voltaire, she attempted to reconcile
Newtonian and Leibnizian physics and metaphysics
in her Institutions de physique (1740)
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Anne-Louise-Germaine, Mme de Staël-Holstein
(1766-1817)
Defender of the French Revolution and forerunner
of the Romantic movement, de Staël wrote
influential tracts on the philosophy of history
and a survey of then-contemporary philosophy.
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Lady Mary Shepherd (c1780-1847)

• Aristocrat
• Her work shows the influence of the Scottish
  Common Sense school
• Severe critic of Hume and Berkeley
• Essay on the Relation of Cause and Effect (1824)
• Essays on the Perception of an External Universe
  (1827)

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Mary Wollstonecraft (1757-97)
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Mary Wollstonecraft (1757-1797)

• Daughter of failed businessman farmer
• Found employment as a companion
• Turbulent love life
• Operated a School
• Worked as a translator reviewer

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Mary Wollstonecraft (1757-97)

• Became important political author
• Eye witness to the French Revolution
• Controversial advocate for womens rights
• Mother of Mary Shelley (Frankenstein)

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Mary Wollstonecraft (1757-97)

• Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1786)
• The Female Reader (1789)
• Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790)
• Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)
• An Historical and Moral View of the Origins of
  the French Revolution (1794)

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Her principal views

• That women and men can and should be equals
• That patriarchy distorts and stunts natural woman
• That the class system similarly corrupts
• That education and reason are the keys

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From the Vindication
Would men but generously snap our chains, and be
content with rational fellowship instead of
slavish obedience, they would find us more
observant daughters, more affectionate sisters,
more faithful wives, more reasonable mothers--in
a word, better citizens. We should then love
them with true affection because we should learn
to respect ourselves.
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What Has Determined their Position--then and now?

• Supportive husbands, fathers, brothers
• Or independence from men
• Exclusion or subordination of women in schools,
  the church, universities and literary
  institutions
• Wealth, or the need of it
• Prejudice about womens abilities/roles
• The recovery work of feminist historians

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Their Achievement

• Overcoming social obstacles
• Criticizing, defending, making more sophisticated
• Resisting and Demanding
• Producing original work

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Some Important Questions

• What and who else have we forgotten or neglected?
• Not only about early modern women in philosophy
  but also about other parts of our history?
• How many limiting factors still prevent people
  from achievement or being remembered for their
  achievement?

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Thank You