Book
Cavendish
Arguments of the philosophers, Routledge
2016
DOI: 10.4324/9781315657929
Abstract
Margaret Cavendish (1623 - 1673) was a philosopher, poet, scientist, novelist, and playwright of the seventeenth century. Her work is important for a number of reasons. It presents an early and compelling version of the naturalism that is found in current-day philosophy; it offers important insights that bear on recent discussions of the nature and characteristics of intelligence and the question of whether or not the bodies that surround us are intelligent or have an intelligent cause; it anticipates some of the central views and arguments that are more commonly associated with figures like Thomas Hobbes and David Hume. This is the first full account of Cavendish's philosophy and covers the whole span of her work. David Cunning begins with an overview of Cavendish's life and work before assessing her contribution to a wide range of philosophical subjects, including her arguments concerning materialism, experimentation, the existence of God, social and political philosophy and free will and compatibilism. Setting Cavendish in both historical and philosophical context, he argues that like Spinoza she builds on central tenets of Descartes' philosophy and develops them in a direction that Descartes himself would avoid. She defends a plenum metaphysics according to which all individuals are causally interdependent, and according to which the physical universe is a larger individual that constitutes all of reality. Cavendish is essential reading for students of seventeenth-century philosophy, early modern philosophy and seventeenth-century literature.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Cavendish
- Creators
- David Cunning - University of Iowa, Philosophy
- Resource Type
- Book
- Table of contents
- Stoical fancies --; Ideas of God and other immaterials --; Thinking Matter --; Ubiquitous knowledge --; note to the monarch.; eternal plenum --; 8.; 7.; Imagistic Ideas, fallibilism, and the limits of cognition --; 6.; 5.; 4.; 3.; 2.; 1.; Free will and agency --; Imagistic Ideas, fallibilism, and the limits of cognition; The eternal plenum; Free will and agency; Index; Thinking Matter; Stoical fancies; Ideas of God and other immaterials; 1; A couple of prefatory notes; 2; Contents; 3; Acknowledgments; 4; Introduction; 5; 6; References; 7; 8; Ubiquitous knowledge; A note to the monarch; Abbreviations; Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- Acknowledgments -- A couple of prefatory notes -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Biography -- Cavendish in the canon -- The philosophical theses -- Notes -- 1. Imagistic Ideas, fallibilism, and the limits of cognition -- Imagistic ideas -- Epistemic humility, fallibilism, and the limits of explanation -- Moderated empiricism -- The veridicality of sense perception -- A preliminary discussion of patterning -- Beyond the senses -- Notes -- 2. Thinking Matter -- Dualism in the background -- Materialism and mind-body interaction -- The impossibility of immaterial motion -- The divisibility of mind -- Intelligence and mentality as a precondition of organization and order -- Unconscious embodied intelligence -- Laws of nature -- The relative value of body vs. mind -- The products of a divine being -- Notes -- 3. Ideas of God and other immaterials -- No ideas of immaterials, and no idea of God -- A notion of God? -- God and nature -- Humility, piety, and respect -- Finite immaterial spirits v. finite material minds -- Heaven, hell, and the afterlife -- Theology and heresy -- Immaterials and science -- Notes -- 4. The eternal plenum -- No empty space -- The interdependence of bodies in the plenum -- Individuation -- Causality as necessary connection -- The competition among individuals to retain their quantity of motion -- Patterning and other kinds of interaction -- The plenum as eternal -- The eternal plenum and orthodoxy -- The universe as infinite -- Decay, death, and eternality -- Notes -- 5. Ubiquitous knowledge -- The mind of nature -- Incomplete ideas -- Nature vs. artifice -- Three different kinds of matter -- Other instances of knowledge in the plenum -- Nature as mostly self-knowing -- Notes -- 6. Free will and agency -- Libertarian freedom and theology; Compatibilism -- Freedom, agency, and the interference of the plenum -- Imaginary worlds and increased maneuverability -- The power of larger composites -- Notes -- 7. Stoical fancies -- Stoicism -- Retreat to fancy -- A proper substitute for real life? -- Fame -- Normativity and control -- Notes -- 8. A note to the monarch -- Motivation, cruelty, and self-love -- Monarchy and social order -- A somewhat sustainable order -- Notes -- References -- Index
- Series
- Arguments of the philosophers
- DOI
- 10.4324/9781315657929
- ISBN
- 9780415819602; 0415819601; 9780367138516; 0367138514; 9781317329503; 1317329503
- eISBN
- 1315657929; 9781315657929; 1317329511; 9781317329510; 9781317329503; 1317329503
- Publisher
- Routledge; New York
- Number of pages
- xiv, 321 pages
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 2016
- Academic Unit
- Philosophy
- Record Identifier
- 9983903694402771
Metrics
25 Record Views