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

Abstract

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.

Mary Wollstonecraft

“…The eternal standard can be known only by reason. Wollstonecraft claims that 'every being may become virtuous by the exercise of its own reason' (Works 5: 90) and adds that 'it is a farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do not result from the exercise of its own reason' 40 For a discussion of Rousseau's position and Wollstonecraft's criticism, see Reuter (2014). 41 Rousseau is explicitly criticizing the arguments about equality based on similarity developed by authors such as François Poulain de la Barre during the preceding century.…”

“…On the differences between Rousseau's and Wollstonecraft's views on perfectibility, seeReuter (2014Reuter ( , 2017.…”

Mary Wollstonecraft och autonomins uppkomst:

“…16. Jag har annanstans analyserat Wollstonecrafts Rousseau-kritik (Reuter, 2014). kvinnor kan bli fullvärdiga moralsubjekt bara om de a) är fria från förtryck, inklusive det könsrelaterade förtryck Rousseau inte beaktar, och b) får en adekvat utbildning och lär sig använda sitt eget förnuft.…”

On the Outskirts of the Canon: The Myth of the Lone Female Philosopher, and What to Do about It

“…Mary Wollstonecraft devoted much of her philosophical energy both to arguing against Rousseau that women were essentially different from men and to showing that applying his educational model to women would both improve women's condition and benefit society as a whole (Reuter ). Perversely, Le Doeuff notes, it is because Wollstonecraft embraced Rousseauvian arguments on education and applied them to women that she was accused of imposing masculine values on women (Le Doeuff , 44).…”