Jacqueline BroadMonash University (Australia) · Philosophy
Jacqueline Broad
PhD
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56
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Introduction
Skills and Expertise
Publications
Publications (56)
Some scholars have identified a puzzle in the writings of Mary Astell (1666–1731), a deeply religious feminist thinker of the early modern period. On the one hand, Astell strongly urges her fellow women to preserve their independence of judgement from men; yet, on the other, she insists upon those same women maintaining a submissive deference to th...
In his correspondence, John Locke described his close friend Damaris Masham as ‘a determined foe to ecclesiastical tyranny’ and someone who had ‘the greatest aversion to all persecution on account of religious matters.’ In her short biography of Locke, Masham returned the compliment by commending Locke for convincing others that ‘Liberty of Conscie...
This paper focuses on the English philosopher Mary Astell’s marginalia in Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s personal copy of the 1704 edition of Pierre Bayle’s Pensées diverses sur le comète (first published in 1682). I argue that Astell’s annotations provide good reasons for thinking that Bayle is biased towards atheism in this work. Recent scholars mai...
Little is known about the shaping and development of Anne Conway's thought in relation to her early modern contemporaries. In one part of her only surviving treatise, The Principles, Conway criticises "those doctors" who uphold a dualist theory of soul and body, a mechanist conception of body (as dead and inert), and the view that the soul is "inti...
This book addresses the theme of liberty as it is found in the writing of women philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, or as it is theorized with respect to women and their lives. It covers both theoretical and practical philosophy, with chapters on problems in the metaphysics of free will (both human and divine), the liberty (or...
This chapter examines three seventeenth-century feminist critiques of the misogynist pamphleteer John Sprint (fl. 1699-1700). It demonstrates that an ideal of freedom as rational self-governance-controlling one's own will in conformity with the law of reason-plays a crucial role in the arguments of Sprint's key critics, Eugenia, Mary Astell, and Ma...
The English writer Mary Astell is widely known today as an early feminist pioneer, but not so well known as a philosophical thinker. Her feminist reputation rests largely on her impassioned plea to establish an all-female college in England, an idea first put forward in her Serious Proposal to the Ladies (1694). She is also remembered for her harsh...
This paper examines Mary Astell’s feminist ideas against the backdrop of her wider moral philosophy in A Serious Proposal (1694; 1697) and The Christian Religion (1705). More specifically, Broad offers an interpretation of Astell’s feminism from the point of view of her theory of virtue. She argues that, by highlighting Astell’s virtue-theoretical...
This chapter discusses the impact of Cartesian epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical ideas on the feminist arguments of François Poulain de la Barre (1647–1723) and Mary Astell (1666-1731). In the scholarly literature to date, it is a common view that Descartes’ method of doubt and his concept of the thinking self provided significant inspirat...
This paper examines the concept of liberty at the heart of Sarah Chapone's 1735 work, The Hardships of the English Laws in Relation to Wives. In this text, Chap one (1699-1764) advocates an ideal of freedom from domination that closely resembles the republican ideal in seventeenth and eighteenth-century England. This is the idea that an agent is fr...
Mary Astell (1666–1731) is best known today as one of the earliest English feminists. This book sheds new light on her writings by interpreting her first and foremost as a moral philosopher—as someone committed to providing guidance on how best to live. The central claim of this work is that all the different strands of Astell’s thought—her epistem...
In the 1706 third edition of her Reflections upon Marriage, Mary Astell alludes to John Locke's definition of slavery in her descriptions of marriage. She describes the state of married women as being 'subject to the inconstant, uncertain, unknown, ArbitraryWill of anotherMan' (Locke, Two Treatises, II.22). Recent scholars maintain that Astell does...
Our modern ideals about liberty were forged in the great political and philosophical debates of the 17th and 18th centuries, but we seldom hear about women's contributions to those debates. This paper examines the ideas of early modern English women – namely Margaret Cavendish, Mary Astell, Mary Overton, ‘Eugenia’, Sarah Chapone and the civil war w...
The Christian Religion, as Professed by a Daughter of the Church of England (1705) is the most mature and comprehensive statement of Mary Astell’s religious and philosophical views. It also represents the culmination of Astell’s feminist project to teach her fellow women how to lead useful lives of virtue and wisdom. The main purpose of this work i...
Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673)Anne Conway (1631–1679)Aphra Behn (1640–1689)Mary Astell (1666–1731)Conclusion
NotesReferences
In April 1667, Mary Evelyn wrote to her son’s tutor, Ralph Bohun, describing a visit that she had paid to Margaret Cavendish, the Duchess of Newcastle (1623–73). Evelyn reports that Cavendish was with the physician and natural philosopher Walter Charleton (1619–1707) and that he was “complimenting her wit and learning in a high manner; which she to...
According to some scholars, Mary Astell’s feminist programme is severely limited by its focus on self-improvement rather than wider social change. In response, I highlight the role of ‘virtuous friendship’ in Astell’s 1694 work, A Serious Proposal to the Ladies. Building on classical ideals and traditional Christian principles, Astell promo...
This ground-breaking book surveys the history of women's political thought in Europe from the late medieval period to the early modern era. The authors examine women's ideas about topics such as the basis of political authority, the best form of political organisation, justifications of obedience and resistance, and concepts of liberty, toleration,...
Many scholars point to the close association between early modern science and the rise of rational arguments in favour of the existence of witches. For some commentators, it is a poor reflection on science that its methods so easily lent themselves to the unjust persecution of innocent men and women. In this paper, I examine a debate about witches...
This volume challenges the view that women have not contributed to the historical development of political ideas, and highlights the depth and complexity of women’s political thought in the centuries prior to the French Revolution.
From the late medieval period to the enlightenment, a significant number of European women wrote works dealing with t...
Some scholars suggest that John Locke's revisions to the chapter "Of Power" for the 1694 second edition of his Essay concerning Human Understanding may be indebted to the Cambridge Platonist, Ralph Cudworth. Their claims partly rest on evidence that Locke may have had access to Cudworth's unpublished manuscript treatises on free will and moral acco...
There is a rich and diverse tradition of women philosophers in the history of British thought. Scholars have only recently begun to acknowledge the true extent of this tradition. In the past, the few women thinkers who were recognized were seen as the followers or helpmeets of their more famous male peers. A few women were regarded as philosophers...
In this groundbreaking collection of essays the history of philosophy appears in a fresh light, not as reason's progressive discovery of its universal conditions, but as a series of unreconciled disputes over the proper way to conduct oneself as a philosopher. By shifting focus from the philosopher as proxy for the universal subject of reason to th...
In this rich and detailed study of early modern women's thought, Jacqueline Broad explores the complexity of women's responses to Cartesian philosophy and its intellectual legacy in England and Europe. She examines the work of thinkers such as Mary Astell, Elisabeth of Bohemia, Margaret Cavendish, Anne Conway and Damaris Masham, who were active par...
