A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Rethinking the Western Tradition) - Softcover

Wollstonecraft, Mary; Abbey, Ruth; Clarke, Norma; Cronin, Madeline

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0300176473 ISBN 13: 9780300176476

Verlag: Yale University Press, 2014

Inhaltsangabe

Mary Wollstonecraft’s visionary treatise, originally published in 1792, was the first book to present women’s rights as an issue of universal human rights. Ideal for coursework and classroom study, this comprehensive edition of Wollstonecraft’s groundbreaking feminist argument includes illuminating essays by leading scholars that highlight the author’s significant contributions to modern political philosophy, making a powerful case for her as one of the most substantive political thinkers of the Enlightenment era. No other scholarly work to date has examined as closely both the ideological moorings and the enduring legacy of Wollstonecraft’s courageous discourse.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) was a British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women’s rights. Eileen Hunt Botting is associate professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame.

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A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

By Mary Wollstonecraft, Eileen Hunt Botting

Yale UNIVERSITY PRESS

Copyright © 2014 Yale University
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-300-17647-6

Contents

Editor's Introduction: Reading Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 1792–2014 Eileen Hunt Botting, 1, 
Text, 
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (London, second edition, 1792) Mary Wollstonecraft, 19, 
Essays, 
Are Women Human? Wollstonecraft's Defense of Rights for Women Ruth Abbey, 229, 
"Genius will educate itself." The British Literary Context of Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and Its Legacy for Women Norma Clarke, 246, 
The Personal Is Political: Wollstonecraft's Witty, First-Person, Feminist Voice Eileen Hunt Botting, 261, 
Reading Mary Wollstonecraft in Time Virginia Sapiro, 280, 
Appendixes, 
Biographical Directory for Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Madeline Cronin, 291, 
The Life and Times of Wollstonecraft and Her Family, 1688–1818 Madeline Cronin and Eileen Hunt Botting, 308, 
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman within the Women's Human Rights Tradition, 1739–2015 Eileen Hunt Botting and Madeline Cronin, 315, 
Bibliography, 323, 
Index, 333, 

CHAPTER 1

THE RIGHTS AND INVOLVED DUTIES OF MANKIND CONSIDERED.

In the present state of society it appears necessary to go back to first principles in search of the most simple truths, and to dispute with some prevailing prejudice every inch of ground. To clear my way, I must be allowed to ask some plain questions, and the answers will probably appear as unequivocal as the axioms on which reasoning is built; though, when entangled with various motives of action, they are formally contradicted, either by the words or conduct of men.

In what does man's pre-eminence over the brute creation consist? The answer is as clear as that a half is less than the whole; in Reason.

What acquirement exalts one being above another? Virtue; we spontaneously reply.

For what purpose were the passions implanted? That man by struggling with them might attain a degree of knowledge denied to the brutes; whispers Experience.

Consequently the perfection of our nature and capability of happiness, must be estimated by the degree of reason, virtue, and knowledge, that distinguish the individual, and direct the laws which bind society: and that from the exercise of reason, knowledge and virtue naturally flow, is equally undeniable, if mankind be viewed collectively.

The rights and duties of man thus simplified, it seems almost impertinent to attempt to illustrate truths that appear so incontrovertible; yet such deeply rooted prejudices have clouded reason, and such spurious qualities have assumed the name of virtues, that it is necessary to pursue the course of reason as it has been perplexed and involved in error, by various adventitious circumstances, comparing the simple axiom with casual deviations.

Men, in general, seem to employ their reason to justify prejudices, which they have imbibed, they can scarcely trace how, rather than to root them out. The mind must be strong that resolutely forms its own principles; for a kind of intellectual cowardice prevails which makes many men shrink from the task, or only do it by halves. Yet the imperfect conclusions thus drawn, are frequently very plausible, because they are built on partial experience, on just, though narrow, views.

Going back to first principles, vice skulks, with all its native deformity, from close investigation; but a set of shallow reasoners are always exclaiming that these arguments prove too much, and that a measure rotten at the core may be expedient. Thus expediency is continually contrasted with simple principles, till truth is lost in a mist of words, virtue, in forms, and knowledge rendered a sounding nothing, by the specious prejudices that assume its name.

That the society is formed in the wisest manner, whose constitution is founded on the nature of man, strikes, in the abstract, every thinking being so forcibly, that it looks like presumption to endeavour to bring forward proofs; though proof must be brought, or the strong hold of prescription will never be forced by reason; yet to urge prescription as an argument to justify the depriving men (or women) of their natural rights, is one of the absurd sophisms which daily insult common sense.

The civilization of the bulk of the people of Europe is very partial; nay, it may be made a question, whether they have acquired any virtues in exchange for innocence, equivalent to the misery produced by the vices that have been plastered over unsightly ignorance, and the freedom which has been bartered for splendid slavery. The desire of dazzling by riches, the most certain pre-eminence that man can obtain, the pleasure of commanding flattering sycophants, and many other complicated low calculations of doting self-love, have all contributed to overwhelm the mass of mankind, and make liberty a convenient handle for mock patriotism. For whilst rank and titles are held of the utmost importance, before which Genius "must hide its diminished head," it is, with a few exceptions, very unfortunate for a nation when a man of abilities, without rank or property, pushes himself forward to notice.—Alas! what unheard of misery have thousands suffered to purchase a cardinal's hat for an intriguing obscure adventurer, who longed to be ranked with princes, or lord it over them by seizing the triple crown!

Such, indeed, has been the wretchedness that has flowed from hereditary honours, riches, and monarchy, that men of lively sensibility have almost uttered blasphemy in order to justify the dispensations of providence. Man has been held out as independent of his power who made him, or as a lawless planet darting from its orbit to steal the celestial fire of reason; and the vengeance of heaven, lurking in the subtile flame, like Pandora's pent up mischiefs, sufficiently punished his temerity, by introducing evil into the world.

Impressed by this view of the misery and disorder which pervaded society, and fatigued with jostling against artificial fools, Rousseau became enamoured of solitude, and, being at the same time an optimist, he labours with uncommon eloquence to prove that man was naturally a solitary animal. Misled by his respect for the goodness of God, who certainly—for what man of sense and feeling can doubt it!—gave life only to communicate happiness, he considers evil as positive, and the work of man; not aware that he was exalting one attribute at the expence of another, equally necessary to divine perfection.

Reared on a false hypothesis his arguments in favour of a state of nature are plausible, but unsound. I say unsound; for to assert that a state of nature is preferable to civilization, in all its possible perfection, is, in other words, to arraign supreme wisdom; and the paradoxical exclamation, that God has made all things right, and that error has been introduced by the creature, whom he formed, knowing what he formed, is as unphilosophical as impious.

When that wise Being who created us and placed us here, saw the fair idea, he willed, by allowing it to be so, that the passions should unfold our reason, because he could see that present evil would produce future good. Could the helpless creature whom he called from nothing break loose from his providence, and boldly learn to know good by practising evil, without his permission? No.—How could that energetic advocate for immortality...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Yale University Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2014
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0300176473
• ISBN 13: 9780300176476
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 357
• Herausgeber: Botting Eileen Hunt
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar