Catharine Macaulay and Mary Wollstonecraft on the Will

Reuter, Martina

doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-5895-0_10

Cited by 6 publications

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“…See, for example, Green (2012, 2014), and Green and Weekes (2013). Other significant recent contributions to Macaulay studies are as follows: Frazer (2011), Gardner (1998), Gunther-Canada (2006), Hill (1992, 1995), Hutton (2009) and Reuter (2007). In positioning Macaulay within eighteenth-century thought, I am in agreement with much of what Green writes.…”

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Catharine Macaulay’s Republican Conception of Social and Political Liberty

Coffee

2017

Political Studies

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Catharine Macaulay was one of the most significant republican writers of her generation. Although there has been a revival of interest in Macaulay among feminists and intellectual historians, neorepublican writers have yet to examine the theoretical content of her work in any depth. Since she anticipates and addresses a number of themes that still preoccupy republicans, this neglect represents a serious loss to the discipline. I examine Macaulay's conception of freedom, showing how she uses the often misunderstood notion of virtue to reconcile the individual and collective elements inherent in the republican model. In her own analysis of the deep-rooted social obstacles that stand in the way of women becoming free, Macaulay identifies a serious problem that confronts all republicans, namely how to secure freedom in the face of entrenched structural imbalances that systematically disadvantage certain classes of person. In the end, I conclude that Macaulay herself cannot overcome the issues she raises. This in no way diminishes the importance of her work since her diagnosis is as relevant today as in her own time.

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Catharine Macaulay’s Republican Conception of Social and Political Liberty

Coffee

2017

Political Studies

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“…Catherine Macaulay, whose work Wollstonecraft cites with warmth and approval (Wollstonecraft , 210, 252), also wrote within this tradition employing a framework that has a number of similarities to that used by Price and Wollstonecraft. Although Macaulay's long‐overlooked ideas have recently been the subject of renewed attention from feminists (see Reuter and Green for excellent analyses), contemporary republicans have yet to identify her as an important theorist in their own tradition. I am not aware of any extensive and systematic treatment of her conception of freedom as independence as a neo‐republican political ideal.…”

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confidence: 99%

Freedom as Independence: Mary Wollstonecraft and the Grand Blessing of Life

Coffee¹

2014

Hypatia

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Independence is a central and recurring theme in Mary Wollstonecraft's work. Independence should not be understood as an individualistic ideal that is in tension with the value of community but as an essential ingredient in successful and flourishing social relationships. I examine three aspects of this rich and complex concept that Wollstonecraft draws on as she develops her own notion of independence as a powerful feminist tool. First, independence is an egalitarian ideal that requires that all individuals, regardless of sex, be protected to a comparable extent in all areas of social, political, and economic life, no matter whether this is in the public or private sphere. Second, so long as this egalitarian condition is not compromised, independence allows for individuals to perform differentiated social roles, including along gendered lines. Finally, the ongoing and collective input of both women and men is required to ensure that the conditions necessary for social independence are maintained. In Wollstonecraft's hands, then, independence is a powerful ideal that allows her to argue that women must be able to act on their own terms as social and political equals, doing so as women whose perspectives and interests may differ from men's.

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“… One should note though that even if Wollstonecraft did not see any necessary conflict between the human and the divine will, she did put more emphasis on the freedom of the will than did most of her fellow rationalists such as Price and Catherine Macaulay; see Reuter . …”

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“… On the role of imagination and sensibility in Wollstonecraft's thought, see also Sapiro , 43–76, 79; Mackenzie ; Conger ; Green ; Khin Zaw ; Bahar ; Gardner , 101–22; Reuter ; . …”

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“Like a Fanciful Kind ofHalfBeing”: Mary Wollstonecraft's Criticism of Jean‐Jacques Rousseau

Reuter¹

2014

Hypatia

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The article investigates the philosophical foundations and details of Mary Wollstonecraft's criticism of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's views on the education and nature of women. I argue that Wollstonecraft's criticism must not be understood as a constructionist critique of biological reductionism. The first section analyzes the differences between Wollstonecraft's and Rousseau's views on the possibility of a true civilization and shows how these differences connect to their respective conceptions of moral psychology. The section shows that Wollstonecraft's disagreement with Rousseau's views on women was rooted in a broad scope of philosophical disagreement. The second section focuses on Rousseau's concept of nature, and I argue that Rousseau was neither a biological determinist nor a functionalist who denied that nature had any normative significance. The section ends with a discussion of Wollstonecraft's criticism of Rousseau's application of the distinction between the natural and the artificial. The third section focuses on Wollstonecraft's critique of Rousseau's claim that there are different standards for the perfectibility of men and women. The article concludes with a critical discussion of the claim that Aristotle would have provided Wollstonecraft with the philosophical tools she needed for her criticism of Rousseau.

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Catharine Macaulay and Mary Wollstonecraft on the Will

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Catharine Macaulay’s Republican Conception of Social and Political Liberty

Catharine Macaulay’s Republican Conception of Social and Political Liberty

Freedom as Independence: Mary Wollstonecraft and the Grand Blessing of Life

“Like a Fanciful Kind ofHalfBeing”: Mary Wollstonecraft's Criticism of Jean‐Jacques Rousseau

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