Feminist Interpretations of Mary Astell

Alice Sowaal is Associate Professor of Philosophy at San Francisco State University. She has written widely on Descartes and Mary Astell.Penny A. Weiss is Professor of Political Science at Saint Louis University. Her most recent book is Cannon Fodder: Historical Women Political Figures, also published by Penn State University Press.

• ContentsPrefaceNancy TuanaAcknowledgments1Locations and Legacies: Reading Mary Astell and Re-Reading the CanonPenny A. Weiss2Mary Astell and the VirtuesJacqueline Broad3Mary Astell’s Account of Feminine Self-EsteemKathleen A. Ahearn4Mary Astell and the Development of Vice: Pride, Courtship, and the Woman’s Human Nature QuestionAlice Sowaal5Custom, Freedom, and Equality: Mary Astell on Marriage and Women’s EducationKaren Detlefsen6Further Reflections upon Marriage: Mary Astell and Sarah ChaponeSusan Paterson Glover7Mary Astell: Some Reflections upon TraumaElisabeth Hedrick Moser8“From the Throne to Every Private Family”: Mary Astell as Analyst of PowerPenny A. Weiss9Mary Astell’s Feminism: A Rhetorical PerspectiveChristine Mason Sutherland10Mary Astell on the Existence and Nature of GodMarcy P. Lascano11The Emerging Picture of Mary Astell’s ViewsAlice SowaalReferencesIndex

“A fascinating, timely, and scholarly rereading of the work of Mary Astell that moves her from a mere curiosity—a seventeenth-century woman with feminist leanings—to a full-fledged participant in many of the philosophical issues of her day and a contributor to our contemporary debates.”—Margaret Atherton, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee