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How did Margaret Cavendish contribute to the scientific revolution?
As the author of approximately 14 scientific or quasi-scientific books, she helped to popularize some of the most important ideas of the scientific revolution, including the competing vitalistic and mechanistic natural philosophies and atomism.
When did Margaret Cavendish discover?
In 1667 Margaret Cavendish was the first woman allowed to visit the all-male bastion of the Royal Society, a newly formed scientific society. Who was this woman? Frotispiece of Margaret Cavendish, ca. 1650s, one of three the writer commissioned from artist Abraham van Diepenbeeck.
What is Margaret Cavendish known for?
Margaret was probably the most published woman of the 17th century, publishing plays, essays, criticisms and poetry, as well some of the earliest proto-science fiction. In 1667 she became the first woman to attend a meeting of the Royal Society – a bold step which was not repeated for centuries.
Why is Margaret Cavendish important today?
What was Margaret Cavendish philosophy?
Cavendish was a staunch royalist and aristocrat; perhaps not surprisingly, then, she argued that each person in society has a particular place and distinctive activity and that, furthermore, social harmony only arises when people know their proper places and perform their defining actions.
How does Cavendish reject Descartes argument for the existence of God?
Cavendish explicitly rejects Cartesian dualism by using the very ‘natural reason’ Descartes so revered. ‘Vhe reasons for this rejection can be traced to the materialist nfluences on her thought. that all change in nature can be attributed to the motion of differently shaped atoms.
Does Cavendish believe in God?
Although Cavendish claimed orthodoxy and Anglicanism, she was nevertheless a proponent of a negative theology that anticipated the more natural religion of the eighteenth-century Deists.
Did Margaret Cavendish go to college?
As the youngest of eight, Cavendish recorded spending a lot of time with her siblings. She had no formal education, but had access to libraries and tutors, although she hinted that the children paid little heed to tutors, who were “rather for formality than benefit”.
Who did Margaret Cavendish disagree with?
In her earliest work from 1653, she allows for an atomist account of nature and matter, though by 1656 she is already arguing against atomism in her “Condemning Treatise of Atomes”. Later, in her Observations from 1666, she provides at least two arguments against atomism.