Unlock the intellectual treasures of political theory with our meticulously crafted notes from Warwick's PAIS Department's module, "Political Theory from Hobbes (PO201)." Dive deep into the ideas of influential Western European thinkers since the 17th century, benefiting from extensive coverage, in...
About Wollstonecraft: Born in 1759 (positions her with other Enlightenment figures such as
Rousseau) from her childhood a desire to protect women can be seen. As a teenager,
Wollstonecraft would lie in front of her mother’s bedroom door to protect her from
beatings by her abusive husband. In her early twenties she helped her sister Eliza escape an
abusive marriage. The pair would go on to establish a girl’s school with their other sister,
Everina. To pay for this school, Wollstonecraft became a governess for a wealthy family
which gave her a taste of aristocratic life. This enabled her to realise how differently some
people live in comparison with others. This inspired her 1787 work ‘Thoughts on the
Education of Daughters’ which would go on to inspire ‘Vindication of the Rights of Women’
in 1792.
During this time she met Richard Price who was head of the local community of Rational
Dissenters. These were people who apply reason to their religious beliefs (similarly to
Locke and his natural rights theory). Price became a key contact for Wollstonecraft as
evidenced by her ‘Vindication of the Rights of Men’ (1790) which was published in defence
of Price. Through her work with Price, she met her future publisher and friend, Joseph
Johnson.
Influences:
Wollstonecraft was profoundly influenced by John Locke, and particularly his 1693 work
‘Some Thoughts Concerning Education’.
- (W) appealed to the Lockean view that people are ‘blank slates’ who can be
moulded by education. Both (W) and (L) argued that people are born without any
knowledge, and our intellectual minds are created by our social upbringing and
education.
- In ‘Thoughts on the Education of Daughters’ (W) speaks about the poor
education inflicted upon women, and tells the tale of Mary and Caroline. (W)
explains how once taught by women as opposed to ignorant servants, Mary and
Caroline began to succeed in avoiding anger and instead exercise compassion,
love, truth and virtue. However (W) and (L) differ here, as (W) does not agree
that home education is needed to protect boys from bad influences. Instead, she
calls for mixed learning of boys and girls.
- As we were all a ‘blank slate’ at some point in time, our intellectual mind is
created through habit or education. This led to (W’s) belief that hierarchies in our
social lives are not justified as ‘God has made all things right’.
Wollstonecraft was also influenced by Rousseau, but she has both positive and negative
things to say about him:
- (W) admired (R) and his anti-elitism and commitment to egalitarianism. She
particularly liked his view that people should be stripped of vanity, social
hierarchies, pretension and falsehood. These are conditions learnt when we
begin to experience society, however our capacity of reason allows us to change
these ‘artificial’ conditions.
Adversaries:
Criticism of Edmund Burke:
- Burke attacked Price within his ‘Reflections on the Revolution in France’.
Encouraged by Johnson, (W) took up her pen in Price’s defence in writing ‘A
Vindication of the Rights of Men’ in response to Burke. Within this, (W) maintains
that France should adopt Republicanism and do away with the monarchy and
hereditary privileges. This would be the only way for France to become a fairer
society. The work was anonymous, but people guessed it was (W) due to the
publication of a second ‘A Vindication of the Rights of a Woman’ in 1792. Within
this work, (W) challenges the inherent authority, power and social hierarchies
which dominate and subordinate women. (W) argues that women are submissive
in their subordination, so to undo this identity education is important.
Criticism of Rousseau:
- (W) argued that aesthetics, beauty and soft femininity was disastrous for women
as it enslaves them. Furthermore, books and theories teach women to be
thoughtless beings.
- (W) took issue with Rousseau’s work, Emile. This work advocates that men and
women should be educated in different ways due to physical differences.
Rousseau said: ‘the whole education of women ought to be relative to men, to
please them, to be useful to them, to make themselves loved and honoured by
them, to educate them when young, to care for them when grown, to counsel
and console them and to make life agreeable and sweet to them, these are the
duties of women at all times and it should be taught to them from infancy’.
- (W) uses the same analytical tools as Locke and other great Enlightenment
thinkers to point out that equality and liberty is not just to be reserved for men.
- Rousseau believed women should be confined to the private sphere, and thought
husbands could have absolute authority over their wives. (W) criticised this view
saying: ‘to subjugate a rational being to the will of another – is a most cruel and
undue stretch of power’. Furthermore, (W) argued that marriage would also
make women act poorly: ‘whilst they are absolutely dependent on their
husbands, woman will be cunning means and selfish’. There is no reason to
‘expect virtue from a slave’, and for (W), women are slaves in marriage.
Liberal Vs. Republican Freedom:
To examine (W)’s belief that women are oppressed in society, it is necessary to know the
different between Liberal and Republican Freedom:
Liberal Freedom Republican Freedom
Liberal Freedom rests on the belief in Republican Freedom is defined as non-
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