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Mary Wollstonecraft

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Book cover A History of Women Philosophers

Part of the book series: A History of Women Philosophers ((HOWP,volume 3))

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Abstract

While it is understandable that not everyone is familiar with Mary Wollstonecraft’s novels or book reviews, it is astonishing that some omit her philosophical works from courses in eighteenth-century thought, social philosophy, philosophical psychology or philosophy of education. She offers clear, well-argued theories concerning human nature, the nature of society and the right forms of education, and these theories are significantly different from those of Rousseau and other eighteenth-century philosophers. To omit her work is to omit both a strong proponent of women’s equality and a major thinker in the “British radical tradition.”

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Notes

  1. Emily W. Sunstein, A Different Fact, The Life of Mary Wollstonecraft (New York: Harper and Row, 1975), pp. 6–7.

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  2. Eleanor Flexner, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Biography (New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, Inc., 1972), p. 23.

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  3. Eleanor Flexner, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Biography (New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, Inc., 1972), p. 21.

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  4. Eleanor Flexner, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Biography (New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, Inc., 1972), pp. 22–24.

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  5. Sunstein, p. 13.

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  6. William Godwin, Memoirs of Mary Wollstonecraft, p. 11, quoted in Flexner, p. 23.

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  7. Flexner, pp. 23–27.

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  8. Ralph M. Wardle, The Collected Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1979), p. 67.

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  9. Sunstein, p. 54ff.

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  10. Sunstein, p. 114.

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  11. Sunstein, pp. 150–153.

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  12. Those interested in an assessment of the effect of this relationship on Wollstonecraft’s work should consult: Alison Ravetz, “The Trivialization of Mary Wollstonecraft: a Personal and Professional Career Re-vindicated,” Women’s Studies International Forum 6 (1983), pp. 491–499.

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  13. Those interested in an assessment of the effect of this relationship on Wollstonecraft’s work should consult: Alison Ravetz, “The Trivialization of Mary Wollstonecraft: a Personal and Professional Career Re-vindicated,” Women’s Studies International Forum 6 (1983), pp. 339–340.

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  14. Those interested in an assessment of the effect of this relationship on Wollstonecraft’s work should consult: Alison Ravetz, “The Trivialization of Mary Wollstonecraft: a Personal and Professional Career Re-vindicated,” Women’s Studies International Forum 6 (1983), p. 334.

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  15. Those interested in an assessment of the effect of this relationship on Wollstonecraft’s work should consult: Alison Ravetz, “The Trivialization of Mary Wollstonecraft: a Personal and Professional Career Re-vindicated,” Women’s Studies International Forum 6 (1983), p. 334.

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  16. Those interested in an assessment of the effect of this relationship on Wollstonecraft’s work should consult: Alison Ravetz, “The Trivialization of Mary Wollstonecraft: a Personal and Professional Career Re-vindicated,” Women’s Studies International Forum 6 (1983), p. 436.

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  17. Those interested in an assessment of the effect of this relationship on Wollstonecraft’s work should consult: Alison Ravetz, “The Trivialization of Mary Wollstonecraft: a Personal and Professional Career Re-vindicated,” Women’s Studies International Forum 6 (1983), pp. 350–353.

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  18. Those interested in an assessment of the effect of this relationship on Wollstonecraft’s work should consult: Alison Ravetz, “The Trivialization of Mary Wollstonecraft: a Personal and Professional Career Re-vindicated,” Women’s Studies International Forum 6 (1983), pp. 81–88.

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  19. Claire Tomlin, The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974), pp. 301–304. Flexner, p. 246.

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  20. Sunstein, p. 165, Tomlin, p. 202.

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  21. Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds, The Wollstonecraft Debate, Criticism, 2nd ed., ed. by Carol H. Poston (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1988), p. 12.

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  22. Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds, The Wollstonecraft Debate, Criticism, 2nd ed., ed. by Carol H. Poston (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1988), pp. 12–13.

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  23. Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds, The Wollstonecraft Debate, Criticism, 2nd ed., ed. by Carol H. Poston (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1988), pp. 36–37.

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  24. Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Men, Introduction by Eleanor Louise Nicholes (Gainesville: Scholars Facsimilies and Reprints, 1960), p. 2.

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  25. Eleanor Louise Nicholes, Introduction to Wollstonecraft, Rights of Men, p. XVI.

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  26. Wollstonecraft, Rights of Woman, p. 8.

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  27. Wollstonecraft, Rights of Woman, p. 17.

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  28. Wollstonecraft, Rights of Woman, p. 8.

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  29. Wollstonecraft, Rights of Woman, pp. 12–13.

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  30. Wollstonecraft, Rights of Woman, pp. 15–16; Rights of Men, pp. 12–17.

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  31. Wollstonecraft, Rights of Woman, pp. 15–16; Rights of Men, Ch. IX; pp. 19–28.

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  32. Wollstonecraft, Rights of Woman, pp. 152–153.

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  33. Wollstonecraft, Rights of Woman, p. 12.

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  34. Elissa S. Guralnick, “Radical Politics in Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” in A Vindication of Woman; Criticism, p. 308.

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  35. Wollstonecraft, Rights of Woman p. 16. It should be noted that these same sorts of criticisms are made in Rights of Men.

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  36. Wollstonecraft, Rights of Woman p. 16. It should be noted that these same sorts of criticisms are made in Rights of Men

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  37. Wollstonecraft, Rights of Woman p. 16. It should be noted that these same sorts of criticisms are made in Rights of Men, p. 17.

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  38. Wollstonecraft, Rights of Woman p. 16. It should be noted that these same sorts of criticisms are made in Rights of Men

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  39. Wollstonecraft, Rights of Woman p. 16. It should be noted that these same sorts of criticisms are made in Rights of Men, p. 158.

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  40. Wollstonecraft, Rights of Woman p. 16. It should be noted that these same sorts of criticisms are made in Rights of Men, pp. 157–161.

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  41. Wollstonecraft, Rights of Woman p. 16. It should be noted that these same sorts of criticisms are made in Rights of Men

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  42. Wollstonecraft, Rights of Woman p. 16. It should be noted that these same sorts of criticisms are made in Rights of Men, pp. 161–162.

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  43. Wollstonecraft, Rights of Woman p. 16. It should be noted that these same sorts of criticisms are made in Rights of Men, p. 161.

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  44. Wollstonecraft, Rights of Woman p. 16. It should be noted that these same sorts of criticisms are made in Rights of Men

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  45. Wollstonecraft, Rights of Woman p. 16. It should be noted that these same sorts of criticisms are made in Rights of Men, p. 168.

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  46. Wollstonecraft, Rights of Woman p. 16. It should be noted that these same sorts of criticisms are made in Rights of Men

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  47. Wollstonecraft, Rights of Woman p. 16. It should be noted that these same sorts of criticisms are made in Rights of Men, throughout chapter XII.

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  48. Wollstonecraft, Rights of Woman p. 16. It should be noted that these same sorts of criticisms are made in Rights of Men, p. 168.

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  49. Wollstonecraft, Rights of Woman p. 16. It should be noted that these same sorts of criticisms are made in Rights of Men

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  50. Wollstonecraft, Rights of Woman p. 16. It should be noted that these same sorts of criticisms are made in Rights of Men, pp. 169–174.

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  51. Wollstonecraft, Rights of Woman p. 16. It should be noted that these same sorts of criticisms are made in Rights of Men, p. 4.

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  53. Nicholes, p. XI.

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  54. Nicholes, p. XIII.

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  55. Nicholes, p. XIV.

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  56. Nicholes, p. XV. See also Godwin, Memoirs.

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  57. Nicholes, p. XVIII.

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  58. Nicholes

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  59. See, for example, Ralph Wardle, Mary Wollstonecraft, pp. 143–145, for enumeration of some women writers who advocated women’s rights.

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  60. “Catharine Macaulay” in Rights of Woman; Backgrounds, footnote 1.

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  61. “Catharine Macaulay” in Rights of Woman; Backgrounds, footnote 1., Letter XXI.

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  62. “Catharine Macaulay” in Rights of Woman; Backgrounds, footnote 1., Letter IV.

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  63. “Catharine Macaulay” in Rights of Woman; Backgrounds, footnote 1., Letter XXI.

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  64. Rights of Woman, p. 106, footnote 5.

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  65. Guralnick, p. 311.

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  66. Rights of Woman, pp. 12–13.

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  67. Rights of Woman, p. 15.

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  68. Rights of Woman, p. 24.

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  69. Rights of Woman, pp. 25–26.

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  71. Rights of Woman, p. 82.

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Authors
  1. Kate Lindemann
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Minnesota, USA

    Mary Ellen Waithe

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© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Lindemann, K. (1991). Mary Wollstonecraft. In: Waithe, M.E. (eds) A History of Women Philosophers. A History of Women Philosophers, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3790-4_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3790-4_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-0931-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-3790-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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