ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Stoic Themes in the Natural Philosophy of Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle

• In Event: Challenging Boundaries in the Enlightenment

English Abstract

Since the revival of interest in the natural philosophy of Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673), her work has been contrasted to contemporaries like Rene Descartes (1596-1650), Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and Henry More (1614-1687). Less attention has been paid to possible sources of her ideas. In this paper I show that Margaret Cavendish’s natural philosophy shares many features in common with Stoicism, which was undergoing a revival throughout her lifetime. Stoicism, as an alternative to Aristotelianism, was a source for many ideas adopted in new approaches to natural philosophy, although few natural philosophers adopted Stoicism as a whole. In this paper I suggest that central Stoic ideas appear in new guises in Margaret Cavendish’s theory of matter, and most importantly in her account of the autonomy of her creative thought, which is the root of both her scientific method and her attraction as an early feminist.

Author

• Peter Barker, University of Oklahoma