Mary Astell was a 17th century English philosopher, recognized now as one of the earliest feminist philosophical thinkers. Some of her most influential works include A Serious Proposal to the Ladies (1694) and Some Reflections Upon Marriage (1700), encouraging that women strive for moral and intellectual growth and perfection, and to place this at the highest significance, ignoring frivolous bodily concerns. Her value for the pursuit of truth and knowledge underpins most of her works, emphasizing that we must not be distracted by feelings of pride, vanity, etc. This is supported by a Cartesian sort of reasoning, based on the mind/body or soul/body distinction, to solidify women as rational and intellectual beings.
Astell herself never married, partly for financial reasons, but after reading Some Reflections Upon Marriage, it is clear why she didn’t. She thoroughly critiques the institution of marriage as a whole, and maintains that the ultimate rational choice for women is the pursuit of education and cultivation of intellect. Rather than being subordinate to a husband, Astell argues that marriage should be a friendship among equals; however, the institution of marriage does not give way to this, so she opposes it. Mary Astell had the support of many wealthy female benefactors, which helped her career a great deal. She advocated heavily for female friendships, and lived with Lady Catherine Jones, a philanthropist with interest in women’s rights (who also never married) in her later years, and passed away in her home.
A thought I had while reading some of her work was that her writings are definitely directed towards middle and upper class women. Although I love her witty remarks about unimportant values, I’m sure that only a small fraction of women at this time had the resources to worry about these sorts of issues, such as appearance. That being said, I think that the argument about valuing education and self-cultivation/betterment stands better against class divides, but is still probably not something that women of lower socioeconomic status would have had time to do, assumedly working to provide for their families.
Following her publication of Some Reflections upon Marriage, Astell seemed to have been commissioned by her bookseller Richard Wilkin to write several Tory political pamphlets. Astell was a high-church Tory, which seems a bit in opposition to her early feminist stances. However, she argues for the intellect of women based purely on metaphysical, philosophical, and religious grounds, and does not advocate for women’s political liberation, although I find some of her thoughts on marriage to be nearing this point. She wrote extensively on religion and politics as well as moral theory, emphasizing the duty of all human beings to live in accordance with and obey the divine law, and cultivating virtue. Her religious thought can be seen throughout all of her works, but mostly in her Letters Concerning the Love of God, A Serious Proposal to the Ladies Pt II, and The Christian Religion. Her religious thought is consistent with her feminist thought, which I will discuss within the context of salvation.
Her use of Cartesian thought includes the concept of the two substances as mind and body. I was most interested in how she uses these concepts to justify the intellectual capabilities of women. Women are thinking things, just like men. There is no justifiable reason that they would have less rational judgment than men. Astell urges women to separate their ideas of their bodies from their souls as a mechanism of attaining control and mastery of passions. She encourages love, enrichment, and respect for the soul/mind rather than the body. With this, Astell also ties in religious reasoning having to do with salvation. She argues for Christianity as the means by which women learn what is really valuable, and to separate these things from the transient distractions that they are so tempted to fixate on. She encourages that women should be placing their education and religious devotion above all else. Besides, in the end, transient beauty and material things will not lend to salvation, only living virtuously, cultivating strong personal interests, and devotion to God will lead to salvation.
The thing that I enjoy the most about Mary Astell is her writing style. I love her witty way of writing, especially as she scorns women for being worried about unimportant things. My favorite piece of hers to read was the first serious proposal, because it contained a lot of writing like this. Some of my favorite quotes from her first proposal which demonstrate this are, “How can you be content to be in the world like tulips in a garden, to make a fine show and be good for nothing, have all your glories set in the grave or perhaps much sooner?” and “She need not make herself so cheap as to descend to court their applauses, for at the greater distance she keeps and the more she is above them, the more effectually she secures their esteem and wonder.”