Elizabeth Hamilton’s Memoirs of Modern Philosophers as a philosophical text
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21597914 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Deborah Boyle (0000-0003-2975-2268, College of Charleston, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 1072-1098 |
| Publication date | 2021-11-02 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | British Journal for the History of Philosophy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0960-8788 • E-ISSN: 1469-3526 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09608788.2021.1917337 |
| OpenAlex | W3158622475 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 20 |
Elizabeth Hamilton (1758–1816) has not so far been considered a philosopher, probably because she wrote novels and tracts on education rather than philosophical treatises. This paper argues that Hamilton’s novel Memoirs of Modern Philosophers (1800) should be read as a philosophical text, both for its close engagement with William Godwin’s moral theory and for what it suggests about Hamilton’s own moral theory and moral psychology. Studies of Memoirs have so far either characterized it as merely satire of Godwin, or, if they have read it as containing arguments against Godwin’s views, have described those arguments in very broad strokes, without looking closely at the text to see if the descriptions are warranted. A careful examination of Memoirs shows that Hamilton objected primarily to one key aspect of Godwin’s moral theory, namely, his insistence that actions affecting others must be based on an impartial, disinterested assessment of a person’s contribution to general utility rather than on their particular relationship to the agent. Memoirs also points towards Hamilton’s own moral theory, as exemplified in her Series of Popular Essays (1813), with its emphasis on ‘benevolent affections’ that are directed towards family members and people in the agent’s social circle
Art · Epistemology · Literature · Memoir · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Multicultural Socio-Legal Studies · Philosophy · Religion, Gender, and Enlightenment
The Anti-Jacobin Novel
Letters on the Elementary Principles of Education
An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding
Memoirs of Modern Philosophers
Godwin's Political Justice
History of Political Thought
The Persona of the Woman Philosopher in Eighteenth‐Century England
William Godwin and the Defence of Impartialist Ethics
The Foundations of Godwinian Impartiality
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice
Was William Godwin a Utilitarian
| Citations per year | 0.8 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2021 - 2025 (5) |
| Highly cited | No |