Margaret Cavendish, English Author and Philosopher
Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1623 - December 15, 1673) was an English aristocrat, a prolific writer, and a scientist. As a poet, philosopher, writer of prose romances, essayist, and playwright who published under her own name at a time when most women writers published anonymously. Her writing addressed a number of topics, including gender, power, manners, scientific method, and philosophy. Her utopian romance, The Blazing World, is one of the earliest examples of science fiction. She is singular in having published extensively in natural philosophy and early modern science. She published over a dozen original works; inclusion of her revised works brings her total number of publications to twenty one. Cavendish published six books on the subject of natural philosophy. She rejected the Aristotelianism and mechanical philosophy of the 17th century, preferring a Stoic model instead. Stoics were concerned with the active relationship between cosmic determinism and human freedom, and the belief that it is virtuous to maintain a will that is in accord with nature. Because of this, the Stoics presented their philosophy as a way of life, and they thought that the best indication of an individual's philosophy was not what a person said but how that person behaved. She criticized and engaged with the members of the Royal Society of London and the philosophers Thomas Hobbes, Ren̩ Descartes, and Robert Boyle. She has been claimed as an advocate for animals and as an early opponent of animal testing.
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