Mary Astell's serious proposal: Mind, method, and custom

Philosophy Compass 2 (2):227–243 (2007)
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Abstract

In general outline, Astell's A Serious Proposal to the Ladies is well understood. In Part I, Astell argues that women are educable, and she proposes the construction of a women's academy. In Part II, she proposes a method for the improvement of the mind. In this article, I reconstruct and contextualize Astell's arguments and proposals within her theory of mind and her account of the skeptical predicament that she sees as being endemic among women. I argue that Astell's two proposals are best understood as strategies that, when employed, will allow women to critique prejudice and custom.

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Alice Sowaal
San Francisco State University

Citations of this work

Mary Astell on Self-Government and Custom.Marie Jayasekera - 2024 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 32 (3):452-472.
Astell, friendship, and relational autonomy.Allauren Samantha Forbes - 2020 - European Journal of Philosophy 29 (2):487-503.
2 Mary Astell and the Virtues.Jacqueline Broad - 2016 - In Penny Weiss & Alice Sowaal, Feminist Interpretations of Mary Astell. Pennsylvania State University Press. pp. 16-34.

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