Mary Astell: Theorist of Freedom from DominationPhilosopher, theologian, educational theorist, feminist and political pamphleteer, Mary Astell was an important figure in the history of ideas of the early modern period. Among the first systematic critics of John Locke's entire corpus, she is best known for the famous question which prefaces her Reflections on Marriage: 'If all men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves?' She is claimed by modern Republican theorists and feminists alike but, as a Royalist High Church Tory, the peculiar constellation of her views sits uneasily with modern commentators. Patricia Springborg's study addresses these apparent paradoxes, recovering the historical and philosophical contexts to her thought. She shows that Astell was not alone in her views; rather, she was part of a cohort of early modern women philosophers who were important for the reception of Descartes and who grappled with the existential problems of a new age. |
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Page 3
... Treatises of Government of 1689 , the Letters on Toleration of 1667 and 1690 and the Minute to Edward Clarke of 1690 , were overtly political , but also that Locke's apparently academic treatises like the Essay Concerning Human ...
... Treatises of Government of 1689 , the Letters on Toleration of 1667 and 1690 and the Minute to Edward Clarke of 1690 , were overtly political , but also that Locke's apparently academic treatises like the Essay Concerning Human ...
Page 32
... Treatises of Government , in her Reflections upon Marriage of 1700 , Astell undertook a critique of the Whig version of the history of the English Civil War in An Impartial Inquiry into the Causes of Rebellion and Civil War in this ...
... Treatises of Government , in her Reflections upon Marriage of 1700 , Astell undertook a critique of the Whig version of the history of the English Civil War in An Impartial Inquiry into the Causes of Rebellion and Civil War in this ...
Page 40
... treatises on mathematics and physics , had been followed by his Meditations on First Philosophy ( 1641 ) , published together with six sets of Objections , among them those of Thomas Hobbes , Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Gassendi . John ...
... treatises on mathematics and physics , had been followed by his Meditations on First Philosophy ( 1641 ) , published together with six sets of Objections , among them those of Thomas Hobbes , Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Gassendi . John ...
Page 41
... Treatises of Government followed in the same year , canonizing Whig political theory for the next century . In 1691 Locke went to live in the household of Sir Francis and Damaris Masham in Essex . His Reasonableness of Christianity ...
... Treatises of Government followed in the same year , canonizing Whig political theory for the next century . In 1691 Locke went to live in the household of Sir Francis and Damaris Masham in Essex . His Reasonableness of Christianity ...
Page 44
... treatise , The Christian Religion , she returns to Malebranchean occasionalism . The reasons she may have had for doing so have been the subject of recent interesting speculation.44 But , as we shall see , Malebranche had views on ...
... treatise , The Christian Religion , she returns to Malebranchean occasionalism . The reasons she may have had for doing so have been the subject of recent interesting speculation.44 But , as we shall see , Malebranche had views on ...
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