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The prolific Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673) published books on natural philosophy as well as stories, plays, poems, orations, allegories, and letters. Her mature philosophical system offered a unique panpsychist theory of Nature as composed of a continuous, non-atomistic, perceiving, knowing matter. In contrast to the dominant philosophical thinking of her day, Cavendish argued that all matter has free will and can choose whether or not to follow Nature's rules. The Well-Ordered Universe explores the development of Cavendish's natural philosophy from the atomism of her 1653 poems to the panpsychist materialism of her 1668 Grounds of Natural Philosophy.
Deborah Boyle argues that her natural philosophy, her medical theories, and her social and political philosophy are all informed by an underlying concern with order, regularity, and rule-following. This focus on order reveals interesting connections among apparently disparate elements of Cavendish's philosophical program, including her views on gender, on animals and the environment, and on sickness and health. Focusing on the role of order in Cavendish's philosophy also helps reveal key differences between her natural philosophy and her more conservative social and political philosophy. Cavendish believed that humans' special desire for public recognition often leads to an unruly ambition, causing humans to disrupt society in ways not seen in the rest of Nature. Thus, The Well-Ordered Universe defends Cavendish as a royalist who endorsed absolute monarchy and a rigid social hierarchy for maintaining order in human society.
The Well-Ordered Universe The Philosophy of Margaret Cavendish
by Boyle, DeborahFormat: Hardcover
Pub. Date: 2017-12-01
Publisher(s): Oxford University Press
List Price: $131.24
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Summary
Author Biography
Deborah Boyle is Professor of Philosophy at the College of Charleston and the author of Descartes on Innate Ideas (2009).
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: Order and Regularities
Chapter 2: Cavendish's Atomism
Chapter 3: Vitalist Materialism and Infinite Nature
Chapter 4: Creatures
Chapter 5: Human Nature and the Desire for Fame
Chapter 6: Peace and Order in Human Societies
Chapter 7: Gender Roles and the Role of Nature
Chapter 8: Humans and the Natural World
Chapter 9: Health and Order in the Human Body
Conclusion
Bibliography
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