Abstract
Some scholars have identified a puzzle in the writings of Mary Astell (1666–1731), a deeply religious feminist thinker of the early modern period. On the one hand, Astell strongly urges her fellow women to preserve their independence of judgement from men; yet, on the other, she insists upon those same women maintaining a submissive deference to the Anglican church. These two positions appear to be incompatible. In this paper, I propose a historical-contextualist solution to the puzzle: I argue that the seeming inconsistency can be dispelled through a close examination of (i) the concepts of selfhood and self-government in Anglican women’s devotional texts of the period, and of (ii) the role that these concepts play in Astell’s feminist arguments.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | International Journal of Philosophical Studies |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Accepted/In press - 2019 |
Keywords
- agency
- Elizabeth Burnet
- feminist theories of autonomy
- Mary Astell
- self-government
- selfhood
Cite this
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Selfhood and Self-government in Women’s Religious Writings of the Early Modern Period. / Broad, Jacqueline.
In: International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 2019.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
TY - JOUR
T1 - Selfhood and Self-government in Women’s Religious Writings of the Early Modern Period
AU - Broad, Jacqueline
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Some scholars have identified a puzzle in the writings of Mary Astell (1666–1731), a deeply religious feminist thinker of the early modern period. On the one hand, Astell strongly urges her fellow women to preserve their independence of judgement from men; yet, on the other, she insists upon those same women maintaining a submissive deference to the Anglican church. These two positions appear to be incompatible. In this paper, I propose a historical-contextualist solution to the puzzle: I argue that the seeming inconsistency can be dispelled through a close examination of (i) the concepts of selfhood and self-government in Anglican women’s devotional texts of the period, and of (ii) the role that these concepts play in Astell’s feminist arguments.
AB - Some scholars have identified a puzzle in the writings of Mary Astell (1666–1731), a deeply religious feminist thinker of the early modern period. On the one hand, Astell strongly urges her fellow women to preserve their independence of judgement from men; yet, on the other, she insists upon those same women maintaining a submissive deference to the Anglican church. These two positions appear to be incompatible. In this paper, I propose a historical-contextualist solution to the puzzle: I argue that the seeming inconsistency can be dispelled through a close examination of (i) the concepts of selfhood and self-government in Anglican women’s devotional texts of the period, and of (ii) the role that these concepts play in Astell’s feminist arguments.
KW - agency
KW - Elizabeth Burnet
KW - feminist theories of autonomy
KW - Mary Astell
KW - self-government
KW - selfhood
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85072056078&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/09672559.2019.1663234
DO - 10.1080/09672559.2019.1663234
M3 - Article
JO - International Journal of Philosophical Studies
JF - International Journal of Philosophical Studies
SN - 0967-2559
ER -