•  7616
    Reason and Freedom: Margaret Cavendish on the order and disorder of nature
    Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 89 (2): 157-191. 2007.
    According to Margaret Cavendish the entire natural world is essentially rational such that everything thinks in some way or another. In this paper, I examine why Cavendish would believe that the natural world is ubiquitously rational, arguing against the usual account, which holds that she does so in order to account for the orderly production of very complex phenomena (e.g. living beings) given the limits of the mechanical philosophy. Rather, I argue, she attributes ubiquitous rationality to th…Read more
  •  4158
    Atomism, Monism, and Causation in the Natural Philosophy of Margaret Cavendish
    Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy 3 199-240. 2006.
    Between 1653 and 1655 Margaret Cavendish makes a radical transition in her theory of matter, rejecting her earlier atomism in favour of an infinitely-extended and infinitely-divisible material plenum, with matter being ubiquitously self-moving, sensing, and rational. It is unclear, however, if Cavendish can actually dispense of atomism. One of her arguments against atomism, for example, depends upon the created world being harmonious and orderly, a premise Cavendish herself repeatedly undermines…Read more
  •  3615
    Margaret Cavendish and Thomas Hobbes on Freedom, Education, and Women
    In Nancy J. Hirschmann & Joanne Harriet Wright (eds.), Feminist Interpretations of Thomas Hobbes, The Pennsylvania State University Press. pp. 149-168. 2012.
    In this paper, I argue that Margaret Cavendish’s account of freedom, and the role of education in freedom, is better able to account for the specifics of women’s lives than are Thomas Hobbes’ accounts of these topics. The differences between the two is grounded in their differing conceptions of the metaphysics of human nature, though the full richness of Cavendish’s approach to women, their minds and their freedom can be appreciated only if we take account of her plays, accepting them as philoso…Read more
  •  2488
    Custom Freedom and Equality: Mary Astell on marriage and women's education
    In Penny Weiss & Alice Sowaal (eds.), Feminist Interpretations of Mary Astell, Pennsylvania State University Press. pp. 74-92. 2016.
    Whatever may be said about contemporary feminists’ evaluation of Descartes’ role in the history of feminism, Mary Astell herself believed that Descartes’ philosophy held tremendous promise for women. His urging all people to eschew the tyranny of custom and authority in order to uncover the knowledge that could be found in each one of our unsexed souls potentially offered women a great deal of intellectual and personal freedom and power. Certainly Astell often read Descartes in this way, and Ast…Read more
  •  2017
    In this paper, I consider Descartes’ Sixth Meditation dropsy passage on the difference between the human body considered in itself and the human composite of mind and body. I do so as a way of illuminating some features of Descartes’ broader thinking about teleology, including the role of teleological explanations in physiology. I use the writings on teleology of some ancient authors for the conceptual (but not historical) help they can provide in helping us to think about the Sixth Meditation p…Read more
  •  1632
    The theories of pre-existence and epigenesis are typically taken to be opposing theories of generation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. One can be a pre-existence theorist only if one does not espouse epigenesis and vice versa. It has also been recognized, however, that the line between pre-existence and epigenesis in the nineteenth century, at least, is considerably less sharp and clear than it was in earlier centuries. The debate (1759-1777) between Albrecht von Haller and Caspar F…Read more
  •  1577
    Margaret Cavendish on the relation between God and world
    Philosophy Compass 4 (3): 421-438. 2009.
    It has often been noted that Margaret Cavendish discusses God in her writings on natural philosophy far more than one might think she ought to given her explicit claim that a study of God belongs to theology which is to be kept strictly separate from studies in natural philosophy. In this article, I examine one way in which God enters substantially into her natural philosophy, namely the role he plays in her particular version of teleology. I conclude that, while Cavendish has some resources wit…Read more
  •  1539
    Biology and Theology in Malebranche's Theory of Organic Generation
    In Ohad Nachtomy & Justin E. H. Smith (eds.), The Life Sciences in Early Modern Philosophy, Oxford University Press. pp. 137-156. 2014.
    This paper has two parts: In the first part, I give a general survey of the various reasons 17th and 18th century life scientists and metaphysicians endorsed the theory of pre-existence according to which God created all living beings at the creation of the universe, and no living beings are ever naturally generated anew. These reasons generally fall into three categories. The first category is theological. For example, many had the desire to account for how all humans are stained by original si…Read more
  •  1506
    Descartes on the Theory of Life and Methodology in the Life Sciences
    In Peter Distelzweig, Evan Ragland & Benjamin Goldberg (eds.), Early Modern Medicine and Natural Philosophy, Springer. pp. 141-72. 2016.
    As a practicing life scientist, Descartes must have a theory of what it means to be a living being. In this paper, I provide an account of what his theoretical conception of living bodies must be. I then show that this conception might well run afoul of his rejection of final causal explanations in natural philosophy. Nonetheless, I show how Descartes might have made use of such explanations as merely hypothetical, even though he explicitly blocks this move. I conclude by suggesting that there i…Read more
  •  1139
    In this paper, I consider Mary Astell's contributions to the history of feminism, noting her grounding in and departure from Cartesianism and its relation to women.
  •  721
    Du Châtelet and Descartes on the Role of Hypothesis and Metaphysics in Science
    In Eileen O'Neill & Marcy Lascano (eds.), Feminism and the History of Philosophy, Kluwer Academic Publishers. forthcoming.
    In this chapter, I examine similarities and divergences between Du Châtelet and Descartes on their endorsement of the use of hypotheses in science, using the work of Condillac to locate them in his scheme of systematizers. I conclude that, while Du Châtelet is still clearly a natural philosopher, as opposed to modern scientist, her conception of hypotheses is considerably more modern than is Descartes’, a difference that finds its roots in their divergence on the nature of first principles.
  •  395
    Women and Liberty, 1600-1800: Philosophical Essays (edited book)
    Oxford University Press. 2017.
    There have been many different historical-intellectual accounts of the shaping and development of concepts of liberty in pre-Enlightenment Europe. This volume is unique for addressing the subject of liberty principally as it is discussed in the writings of women philosophers, and as it is theorized with respect to women and their lives, during this period. The volume covers ethical, political, metaphysical, and religious notions of liberty, with some chapters discussing women's ideas about the m…Read more
  •  362
    Women, Liberty, and Forms of Feminism
    In Jacqueline Broad & Karen Detlefsen (eds.), Women and Liberty, 1600-1800: Philosophical Essays, Oxford University Press. 2017.
    This chapter shows how Mary Astell and Margaret Cavendish can reasonably be understood as early feminists in three senses of the term. First, they are committed to the natural equality of men and women, and related, they are committed to equal opportunity of education for men and women. Second, they are committed to social structures that help women develop authentic selves and thus autonomy understood in one sense of the word. Third, they acknowledge the power of production relationships, espec…Read more
  •  273
    Descartes’s Method of Doubt (review)
    Dialogue 45 (2): 404. 2006.
  •  113
    Supernaturalism, occasionalism, and preformation in Malebranche
    Perspectives on Science 11 (4): 443-483. 2003.
    Malebranche is both an occasionalist and an advocate of the preformationist theory of generation. One might expect this given that he is a mechanist: passive matter cannot be the source of its own motion and so requires God to move it (occasionalism); and such matter, moving according to a few simple laws of motion, could never fashion something as complex as a living being, and so organisms must be fashioned by God at Creation (preformationism). This expectation finds a challenge in Kant's depi…Read more
  •  70
    Emilie Du Châtelet: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
    Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2013.
    A survey article on the metaphysics, physics and methodology of Du Châtelet.
  •  66
    Review of Sarah Hutton, Anne Conway: A Woman Philosopher (review)
    Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2005 (7). 2005.
  •  46
    Critical Notice (review)
    Philosophical Inquiry 26 (4): 131-138. 2004.
    Critical notice of Jacqueline Broad's Women Philosophers of the Seventeenth Century (CUP, 2002).
  •  37
    Review of Margaret Cavendish, Observations Upon Experimental Philosophy (review)
    Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2002 (7). 2002.
  •  29
    Review of Desmond M. Clarke, Descartes: A Biography (review)
    Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2006 (11). 2006.
  •  29
    An outstanding reference source for the wide range of philosophical contributions made by women writing in Europe from about 1560 to 1780. It shows the range of genres and methods used by women writing in these centuries in Europe, thus encouraging an expanded understanding of our historical canon.
  •  27
    In this chapter, I examine similarities and divergences between Du Châtelet and Descartes on their endorsement of the use of hypotheses in science, using the work of Condillac to locate them in his scheme of systematizers. I conclude that, while Du Châtelet is still clearly a natural philosopher, as opposed to modern scientist, her conception of hypotheses is considerably more modern than is Descartes’, a difference that finds its roots in their divergence on the nature of first principles.