Mary Astell
*November 12, (Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom)
†May 11, (London, United Kingdom)
Mary Astell was an English feminist writer, philosopher, and rhetorician. Her feminist reputation rests largely on her plea to establish an all-female college in England, an idea from her Serious Proposal to the Ladies (). She is also remembered for her harsh but witty statement on early modern marriage in her Some Reflections upon Marriage (). Underlying Astell’s feminist ideas are strong philosophical foundations in the form of Cartesian epistemological and metaphysical principles. Today she is best known for her theories on the education of women and her critiques of Norris and John Locke.
Mary Astell encourages women to regard their souls as thinking substances distinct from their bodies and as capable of attaining mastery over bodily sensations and passions. These philosophical themes are so frequent in all her major writings that Astell can be regarded as one of the earliest feminist philosophers of the modern age. In , she began a correspondence with John Norris, the author of a series called the Practical Discourses. Their correspondence continued for on
Mary Astell was born in in Newcastle. Her parents (Peter Astell and Mary Errington) had three children, of which she was the eldest. Her uncle, Ralph Astell, was a clergyman, and was known to be a strong influence on her life. This influence introduced her to, and made her quite familiar with Anglican theology and Cartesian philosophy (Broad).
When Mary was twelve years old, in , her father passed away. This death wreaked havoc on the Astell family, and thir financial and social situation suffered greatly. Mary Errington, Astell’s mother, took out loans to support the family (Springborg). It is believed that had Mary Astell decided to marry, her family wouldn’t have been able to afford a dowry. She remained unmarried and childless throughout her life, though there had been some rumors about a possible engagement (Broad).
Mary moved to London, sometime in the late s, and it is believed that she made this move without any financial support from her family. It is here that she wrote a book of manuscript poetry dedicated to Archbishop William Sancroft. In , Astell started her works in philosophy. She engaged in a correspondence with John Norris &#; these letters were e
Mary Astell was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in into a respectable family, and received an early education at the hands of her uncle, Ralph Astell, who was a Cambridge-educated clergyman-poet. This education continued until Ralph Astell passed away, thus ending Mary’s instructed education in subjects like philosophy and mathematics. By virtue of her being a woman, she was not allowed to continue her education in formal institutions like universities, and instead decided to take matters into her own hands and continue learning independently. Astell dove into the works of philosophers like “Milton, Spencer, Cowley, Plato and Descartes”, strongly establishing her philosophical foundations and broadening her intellectual horizons.
However, Astell’s life took a turn for the worse when her father passed away in , plunging her family into dire financial and social circumstances. Six years later, Astell’s mother also died, leaving Astell in a perilous situation as an unmarried year-old with no money of her own. With nothing to lose, Astell decided to move to London by herself. She quickly became acquainted with a community of other women in Chelsea, where she settled, who soon b
Mary Astell ()
The English writer Mary Astell is widely known today as an early feminist pioneer, but not so well known as a philosophical thinker. Her feminist reputation rests largely on her impassioned plea to establish an all-female college in England, an idea first put forward in her Serious Proposal to the Ladies (). She is also remembered for her harsh but witty indictment of early modern marriage in her Some Reflections upon Marriage (). Underlying Astell’s feminist ideas, however, are strong philosophical foundations in the form of Cartesian epistemological and metaphysical principles. These principles play an important strategic role in her writings: to raise an awareness in women of their inherent ability to bring themselves to moral and intellectual perfection—to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps,” so to speak—regardless of their external circumstances. Toward this end, Astell urges her fellow women to embrace René Descartes’ “clear and distinct ideas” as the hallmarks of truth and certainty. In accordance with Cartesian rationalism, she teaches her readers that all knowledge can be founded on reason rather than the senses, and she urges them to practice
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