Upcoming events
This section is still under construction. Details will follow soon.
CONFERENCE AT UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
DIGITAL CONFERENCE
CONFERENCE AT UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
DIGITAL CONFERENCE
Past events
Inaugural Meeting of the Friends of Mary Astell
APA-East, Philadelphia PA, US
Colin Chamberlain, Temple: "'A Decaying Carkass'? Astell on the Embodied Self"
Astell’s account of the self is puzzling. On the one hand, Astell suggests that an account of the self is crucial. Care of the self is appropriate, Astell argues, so long as this care is directed towards one's true self. People are often mistaken about where their real interests lie because they are confused about their nature. On the other hand, Astell is unclear about the kinds of beings we are, or, in other words, what the self is. In some passages, she claims that we are minds, in other passages, that we are composites of mind and body. Thus, Astell’s account of the self lacks the clarity that, by her own lights, we so urgently need. My proposal is that Astell’s considered view is that we are composites of mind and body, but with a twist. The two elements from which human beings are composed—namely, mind and body—are hierarchically ordered. When Astell seems to identify us with our minds, she’s really just calling attention to the fact that our minds are the most important part of ourselves, not the only part of ourselves. Astell’s hierarchical analysis of human nature also helps explain her account of our well-being.
Timothy Yenter, Mississippi: "Mary Astell on the Metaphysics of Love"
[no abstract]
Penny Weiss, St. Louis University: "A Political Reading of Astell's Serious Proposal"
Analyzing the pedagogical tools and distinctive setting of Mary Astell’s female retreat, I reveal its most progressive promise. In this political reading of A Serious Proposal, Astell emerges as a foremother in the broad political tradition of female resistance to patriarchal domination. She enables a subordinated group of women to arrive at new and oppositional ways to understand themselves, each other, and even the world, and to act for change. The methods and tactics she employs in her retreat reveals the surprisingly democratic and very feminist dimensions of Mary Astell.
APA-East, Philadelphia PA, US
Colin Chamberlain, Temple: "'A Decaying Carkass'? Astell on the Embodied Self"
Astell’s account of the self is puzzling. On the one hand, Astell suggests that an account of the self is crucial. Care of the self is appropriate, Astell argues, so long as this care is directed towards one's true self. People are often mistaken about where their real interests lie because they are confused about their nature. On the other hand, Astell is unclear about the kinds of beings we are, or, in other words, what the self is. In some passages, she claims that we are minds, in other passages, that we are composites of mind and body. Thus, Astell’s account of the self lacks the clarity that, by her own lights, we so urgently need. My proposal is that Astell’s considered view is that we are composites of mind and body, but with a twist. The two elements from which human beings are composed—namely, mind and body—are hierarchically ordered. When Astell seems to identify us with our minds, she’s really just calling attention to the fact that our minds are the most important part of ourselves, not the only part of ourselves. Astell’s hierarchical analysis of human nature also helps explain her account of our well-being.
Timothy Yenter, Mississippi: "Mary Astell on the Metaphysics of Love"
[no abstract]
Penny Weiss, St. Louis University: "A Political Reading of Astell's Serious Proposal"
Analyzing the pedagogical tools and distinctive setting of Mary Astell’s female retreat, I reveal its most progressive promise. In this political reading of A Serious Proposal, Astell emerges as a foremother in the broad political tradition of female resistance to patriarchal domination. She enables a subordinated group of women to arrive at new and oppositional ways to understand themselves, each other, and even the world, and to act for change. The methods and tactics she employs in her retreat reveals the surprisingly democratic and very feminist dimensions of Mary Astell.
