Mary Astell
If all men are born free, why are all women born slaves? Women deserve education and should think twice before marrying.
Placement
English writer who demanded learning for women and asked: “If all men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves?”
Key ideas
- Education for women
- Critique of marriage as tyranny
- Cartesian rationalism
Influence
Influenced by 2
René Descartes
influenced by
In A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, Part II (1697), Astell adapted Descartes’ rules of method to show that women can reason as well as men. M. Astell, A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, Part II (1697); SEP “Mary Astell”
Evidence: AI draft
René Descartes › 1596–1650
Nicolas Malebranche
influenced by
In Letters concerning the Love of God (1695), exchanged with John Norris, Astell took up Malebranche’s view that God, as sole cause of our pleasures, alone deserves love. M. Astell and J. Norris, Letters concerning the Love of God (1695); SEP “Mary Astell”
Evidence: AI draft
Nicolas Malebranche › 1638–1715
Criticism
Mutual critique 1
Damaris Masham ⇄ mutual
criticised
In The Christian Religion (1705) Astell defended the love of God as sole good against the anonymous Discourse (1696), which she ascribed to Locke; Masham wrote it. M. Astell, The Christian Religion (1705); D. Masham, A Discourse concerning the Love of God (1696); SEP “Mary Astell”
Evidence: AI draft
criticised by
Masham’s Discourse concerning the Love of God (1696) answered Astell and Norris’s Letters (1695): loving God alone would undermine the love of fellow creatures that society needs. D. Masham, A Discourse concerning the Love of God (1696); M. Astell & J. Norris, Letters concerning the Love of God (1695); SEP “Damaris Cudworth Masham”
Evidence: AI draft
Damaris Masham › 1659–1708
Criticizes 1
John Locke
criticised
Astell attacked Locke’s suggestion that matter might think (The Christian Religion, 1705) and asked why, if all men are born free, women are born slaves (1706). M. Astell, The Christian Religion, as Profess’d by a Daughter of the Church of England (1705); Some Reflections upon Marriage, 3rd ed. (1706), Preface; SEP “Mary Astell”
Evidence: AI draft
John Locke › 1632–1704
Works
A retreat of learning for women: their minds are as capable of reason as men’s.
Why should absolute power be wrong in a state but right in a family?
Position
Astell drew on Descartes and Malebranche to argue that reason belongs to women as fully as to men, and that their apparent inferiority is the product of a neglected education. In A Serious Proposal to the Ladies she suggested a kind of college or retreat where women could devote themselves to learning and piety. Her Reflections upon Marriage asked why absolute power should be condemned in the state but defended in the household, and why, if all men are born free, all women are born slaves. A sharp critic of Locke, she is often called the first English feminist.
Life & context
Mary Astell was born in 1666 in Newcastle upon Tyne into a family of coal merchants and was taught by her uncle, a clergyman. Around 1688 she moved to London and settled in Chelsea, where she lived from her writing and the support of a circle of learned women. A devout Anglican and a Tory, she helped found a charity school for girls. She died in 1731.
Further main works
- The Christian Religion, as Professed by a Daughter of the Church of England (1705)
Appears in
- Journey ‘Feminist Philosophy’ · Stop 2 of 11
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