Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-7jkgd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-16T16:29:42.028Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Damaris Cudworth Masham: A Seventeenth Century Feminist Philosopher

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Lois Frankel
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The daughter of Ralph Cudworth, and friend of John Locke, Damaris Masham was also a philosopher in her own right. She published two, philosophical books, A Discourse Concerning the Love of God and Occasional Thoughts In Reference to a Virtuous and Christian Life. Her primary purpose was to refute John Norris’ Malebranchian doctrine that we ought to love only God because only God can give us pleasure, and his criticism of Locke. In addition, she argues for greater educational opportunities for women, and an end to the double standard in sexual morality. Recent feminist literature has suggested that women and men may take different ethical and epistemological stands based on differences between the ‘female experience’, and the ‘male experience’. While leaving aside questions pertaining to the accuracy of these suggestions, this paper discusses some aspects of Mash’ am's thought which might be considered representative of the ‘female experience.’

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 4 , Issue 1: Special Issue: The History of Women in Philosophy , Spring 1989 , pp. 80 - 90
Copyright
Copyright © 1989 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

De Beer, E. S. 1976. The correspondence of John Locke, (vol. 2). Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Bourne, Henry Richard Fox. 1969. The life of John Locke. (2 vols.). London: Scientia Verlag Aalen.Google Scholar
Chodorow, Nancy. 1978. The reproduction of mothering. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Christophersen, H. O. 1968. A bibliographical introduction to the study of John Locke. New York: Burt Franklin.Google Scholar
Cranston, Maurice. 1957. John Locke: A biography. New York: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Gerhardt, C. I. ed., 187590. Die philosophischen Schriften von Leibniz. (7 vols.). Berlin.Google Scholar
Gilligan, Carol. 1982. In a different voice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Holland, Nancy. 1986, March. Gender and the generic in Locke. Paper presented at the Pacific Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association, Los Angeles, CA.Google Scholar
Lowrey, Charles E. 1894. The philosophy of Ralph Cudworth: A study of the true intellectual system of the universe. New York: Phillips and Hunt.Google Scholar
Locke, John. 1959. An essay concerning human understanding. Campbell Fraser, Alexander, ed. (2 vols.). New York: Dover.Google Scholar
Masham, Damaris. 1696. A discourse concerning the love of God. London: A. and J. Churchil at the Black‐Swan in Paternoster‐Row.Google Scholar
Masham, Damaris. 1705. Occasional thoughts in reference to a virtuous or christian Life. London: A. and J. Churchil at the Black‐Swan in Paternoster‐Row.Google Scholar
Passmore, John A. 1951. Ralph Cudworth: An interpretation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781316530382CrossRefGoogle Scholar