Philosophical Letters by Margaret Cavendish is a peculiar text in which Cavendish engages with the views of some of the great philosophers and scientists of her time, but it is not a correspondence in which she communicates with those figures directly. Instead, she discusses a cross-section of their views with a third-person, a fictional “Madam.” Cavendish did succeed in having a small amount of back-and-forth correspondence with the leading intellectual men of her generation but there is no philosophical or scientific exchange between Cavendish and the four philosophers who are her prime “interlocutors” in Philosophical Letters – René Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, Henry More, and Jan Baptista Van Helmont. This chapter addresses an argument that a being depends for its social and political properties on the behavior of the beings that surround it, and more specifically that the status of an individual as a member of the philosophical community depends on the willingness of that community to regard the individual as authoritative.

Chapter 7 shows how socioeconomic injustice can act as the catalyst for social mobilisation, looking at the Bosnian protests of 2017. This chaper finally shows how socioeconomic justice issues can be connected to social justice struggles that build on the unresolved legacies of conflict. I explore the claims and slogans of the protests, and trace a connection between these and wartime socioeconomic violence and its continuation during the transition. By looking at the modes of participation and organisation that characterised the protests, I also show how activism and contentious politics are an important part of post-war justice processes. Lastly, the chapter analyses the international community’s reaction to the protests, highlighting its rigid conception of ‘justice’ and inability to engage in meaningful dialogue with a grassroots, horizontal movement.

Chapter 7 shows how socioeconomic injustice can act as the catalyst for social mobilisation, looking at the Bosnian protests of 2017. This chaper finally shows how socioeconomic justice issues can be connected to social justice struggles that build on the unresolved legacies of conflict. I explore the claims and slogans of the protests, and trace a connection between these and wartime socioeconomic violence and its continuation during the transition. By looking at the modes of participation and organisation that characterised the protests, I also show how activism and contentious politics are an important part of post-war justice processes. Lastly, the chapter analyses the international community’s reaction to the protests, highlighting its rigid conception of ‘justice’ and inability to engage in meaningful dialogue with a grassroots, horizontal movement.