Nature’s Poetry and Humanity’s Artifice: Cavendish on the Role of the Imagination in Natural Philosophy
Perceived by many of her contemporaries as preferring theories spun from her own “fantastical” brain to the hard facts of science, Cavendish indeed accords a central role to the workings of the imagining mind. However, as I argue in this paper, Cavendish’s appeal to the imagination is by no means me...
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2024
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cairn-RHS_772_0277RHSRevue d'histoire des sciences https://shs.cairn.info/revue-d-histoire-des-sciences-2024-2-page-277?lang=en https://doi.org/10.3917/e.rhs.772.0277 Nature’s Poetry and Humanity’s Artifice: Cavendish on the Role of the Imagination in Natural Philosophy Borcherding, Julia2024 fre Revue d'histoire des sciences | 77 | 2 | 2024-11-06 | p. 277-306 | 0151-4105 RHS_77239 Perceived by many of her contemporaries as preferring theories spun from her own “fantastical” brain to the hard facts of science, Cavendish indeed accords a central role to the workings of the imagining mind. However, as I argue in this paper, Cavendish’s appeal to the imagination is by no means methodologically naïve. Through an exploration of Cavendish’s analogy between the poetic imagination and the productive, ordering activity of nature, I show how Cavendish poses her poetic depictions of nature both as a counterpoint to gendered critiques of the imagination – instead casting the imagination as a means for female thinkers to enter the male intellectual domain – as well as as a means for critiquing the conception of nature put forwarded by experimental philosophers inspired by the Baconian programme.Perçue par nombre de ses contemporains comme préférant les théories issues de son propre cerveau “fantastique” aux faits concrets de la science, Cavendish accorde en effet un rôle central au travail de l’esprit imaginatif. Cependant, comme je le montrerai dans cet article, l’appel de Cavendish à l’imagination n’est en aucun cas naïf d’un point de vue méthodologique. En explorant l’analogie de Cavendish entre l’imagination poétique et l’activité productive et ordonnatrice de la nature, je montre comment Cavendish présente ses descriptions poétiques de la nature à la fois comme un contrepoint aux critiques genrées de l’imagination – considérant plutôt l’imagination comme un moyen pour les penseuses d’entrer dans le domaine intellectuel masculin – et comme un moyen de critiquer la conception de la nature avancée par les philosophes expérimentaux inspirés par le programme baconien.Cairn free access |
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Français |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
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| description |
Perceived by many of her contemporaries as preferring theories spun from her own “fantastical” brain to the hard facts of science, Cavendish indeed accords a central role to the workings of the imagining mind. However, as I argue in this paper, Cavendish’s appeal to the imagination is by no means methodologically naïve. Through an exploration of Cavendish’s analogy between the poetic imagination and the productive, ordering activity of nature, I show how Cavendish poses her poetic depictions of nature both as a counterpoint to gendered critiques of the imagination – instead casting the imagination as a means for female thinkers to enter the male intellectual domain – as well as as a means for critiquing the conception of nature put forwarded by experimental philosophers inspired by the Baconian programme. |
| author |
Borcherding, Julia |
| spellingShingle |
Borcherding, Julia Nature’s Poetry and Humanity’s Artifice: Cavendish on the Role of the Imagination in Natural Philosophy |
| author_facet |
Borcherding, Julia |
| author_sort |
Borcherding, Julia |
| title |
Nature’s Poetry and Humanity’s Artifice: Cavendish on the Role of the Imagination in Natural Philosophy |
| title_short |
Nature’s Poetry and Humanity’s Artifice: Cavendish on the Role of the Imagination in Natural Philosophy |
| title_full |
Nature’s Poetry and Humanity’s Artifice: Cavendish on the Role of the Imagination in Natural Philosophy |
| title_fullStr |
Nature’s Poetry and Humanity’s Artifice: Cavendish on the Role of the Imagination in Natural Philosophy |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Nature’s Poetry and Humanity’s Artifice: Cavendish on the Role of the Imagination in Natural Philosophy |
| title_sort |
nature’s poetry and humanity’s artifice: cavendish on the role of the imagination in natural philosophy |
| publishDate |
2024 |
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| container_issue |
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| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://shs.cairn.info/revue-d-histoire-des-sciences-2024-2-page-277?lang=en https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.3917/e.rhs.772.0277 |
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