The Medical Roots of Margaret Cavendish’s Matter Theory
In this paper, I demonstrate the extent to which Margaret Cavendish’s early account of matter in Philosophicall Fancies (1653) and Philosophical and Physical Opinions (1655) had its roots in the medical tradition, against a recent expression of scepticism towards my “reading of Cavendish’s general m...
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| 格式: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| 語言: | Français |
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2024
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| 在線閱讀: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| 總結: | In this paper, I demonstrate the extent to which Margaret Cavendish’s early account of matter in Philosophicall Fancies (1653) and Philosophical and Physical Opinions (1655) had its roots in the medical tradition, against a recent expression of scepticism towards my “reading of Cavendish’s general matter theory as deriving from this medical tradition.” I argue that Cavendish drew dynamically on both Galenic and chymical ideas in these early works as she forged a substance theory according to which nature is composed of sensitive and rational spirits that are extracts of dull matter. Yet I go on to show that medical ideas had less of a bearing on her later natural philosophy, as presented in Observations upon Experimental Philosophy (1666) and Grounds of Natural Philosophy (1668). In these, her last two philosophical publications, she disregarded spirits in favour of the more general “matter,” and posited that even motionless matter (as opposed only to moving spirits) possesses knowledge and life. |
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