Margaret Cavendish

Erscheinungsjahr 2018
ISBN: 978-0-19-066405-3
Verlag: ACADEMIC

Buch, Englisch, 272 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 573 g

Reihe: Oxford New Histories of Philosophy

The Seventeenth-Century philosopher, scientist, poet, playwright, and novelist Margaret Cavendish went to battle with the great thinkers of her time, and arguably got the better of them in many cases. She took a creative and systematic stand on the major questions of philosophy of mind, epistemology, metaphysics, and political philosophy. She argued that human beings and all other members of the created universe are purely material creatures, and she held that
there are many other ways in which creatures are alike as well: for example, human beings, non-human animals, spiders, cells, and all other beings exhibit skill, wisdom, and activity, and so the universe of matter is not the largely dead and unimpressive region that most of her contemporaries thought it
to be. Creatures instead are sophisticated and display a wide spectrum of intelligent activity, ranging from the highly conscious mentality that Descartes posited to be part and parcel of human thought, to embodied forms of cognition that is more common in non-human creatures but that guide a significant portion of human behavior as well. Cavendish then used her fictional work to further illustrate her views and arguments, and also to craft alternative fictional worlds in which the climate
for women was very different than on Seventeenth-Century earth - a climate in which women could be taken seriously in the role of philosopher, writer, scientist, military general, and other roles.

This is the first volume to provide a cross-section of Cavendish's writings, views and arguments, along with introductory material. It excerpts the key portions of all her texts including annotated notes highlighting the interconnections between them. Including a general introduction by Cunning, the book will allow students to work toward a systematic picture of Cavendish's metaphysics, epistemology, and political philosophy (and including some of her non-philosophical work as well) and to
see her in dialogue with philosophers who are part of the traditional canon.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Cunning

Cunning, David

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Metaphysik, Ontologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie Westliche Philosophie: Neuzeit

Über Autor(innen)

David Cunning is Professor of Philosophy and Collegiate Scholar at the University of Iowa, where he is also Chair of the Philosophy Department. His primary research and teaching interests are in history of early modern philosophy, with a focus on the mind-body problem, the nature of mind, embodied intelligence, free will, the relative autonomy and interdependence of creatures, and gender. He is also interested in the rhetorical issue of how
philosophers write with an eye to the audience that is receiving them.