Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne

(just learned about this remarkable woman, had to share!)

I LOVE the fact that there is now a society devoted to studying her, and that the latest conference actually starts in two days

Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne




Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1623 – 15 December 1673) was an English aristocrat, a prolific writer, and a scientist. Born Margaret Lucas, she was the youngest sister of prominent royalists Sir John Lucas and Sir Charles Lucas, who owned the manor of St. John's Abbey in Colchester.[1] She became an attendant of Queen Henrietta Maria and travelled with her into exile in France, living for a time at the court of the young King Louis XIV. She became the second wife of William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1645, when he was a marquess.

Cavendish was 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.[2] She is singular in having published extensively in natural philosophy and early modern science.[3] She published over a dozen original works; inclusion of her revised works brings her total number of publications to twenty one.[4]

Cavendish has been championed and criticised as a unique and groundbreaking woman writer. She rejected the Aristotelianism and mechanical philosophy of the seventeenth century, preferring a vitalist model instead.[4] She criticised and engaged with the members of the Royal Society of London and the philosophers Thomas Hobbes, René Descartes, and Robert Boyle. She has been claimed as an advocate for animals and as an early opponent of animal testing.[5]

. . . . .

Observations upon Experimental Philosophy (1666)
Cavendish’s Natural Philosophy
Grounds of natural philosophy, 1668.



Eileen O'Neill offers an overview of Cavendish's natural philosophy and its critical reception in her introduction to Observations upon Experimental Philosophy.[15] O'Neill describes Cavendish's natural philosophy as rejecting Aristotelianism and mechanical philosophy and favouring Stoic doctrines. She notes that while women rarely wrote about natural philosophy in the seventeenth century, Cavendish published six books on the subject.[16] O'Neill points out that Cavendish herself was not formally educated in natural philosophy, though William Cavendish and his brother Charles shared an interest in the subject and supported Margaret's interest and study in the area. Cavendish may also, as O'Neill notes, have been influenced through social encounters with philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes. O'Neill believes that Hobbes (who had instructed Charles in philosophy) had significant influence on Cavendish's natural philosophy and notes that Cavendish was among the few seventeenth century supporters of Hobbes' materialist philosophy, which argued that incorporeal souls do not exist in nature. Beginning in the 1660s, O'Neill notes, Cavendish began to more seriously study the work of her contemporaries. O'Neill suggests that such study was intended to enable Cavendish to better argue her own points by contrasting them with those of other natural philosophers.

. . . . .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Cavendish,_Duchess_of_Newcastle-upon-Tyne


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Welcome
To the official International Margaret Cavendish Society website!


Launched as an international non-profit organization at the June 1997 Cavendish conference in Oxford (UK), the Margaret Cavendish Society was established to provide a means of communication between scholars worldwide and to increase awareness of Cavendish and her writings.

Members work in such disciplines as English Literature, Cultural Studies, History, Philosophy and the History of Science and reside in the UK, Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, India, Israel and Japan.

This site contains current and past newsletters, contacts, information on joining the Society, images, conference details and links to bibliographies, books, e-text and related sites.

***Announcements***
We are pleased to announce our next meeting:


THE ELEVENTH INTERNATIONAL MARGARET CAVENDISH SOCIETY CONFERENCE
DATES: 18 TO 21 JUNE, 2015


THEME: Mediterranean and cross-cultural influences upon Cavendish's writings
The theme may include topics such as:
- Cross-cultural influences in relation to trade, art, literature, piracy and captivity
- Classical (Greco-Roman) identities, philosophy, literature, art and culture
- International conversations in science and philosophy including botany, animal husbandry, general agriculture, mathematics, etc.

[NEW!] DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACTS: 31 March 2015

The Program Committee has voted to extend the deadline for abstracts for Cavendish in Cyprus to 31 March 2015.
More details on our Facebook page here and you may also follow us on Twitter here.

See below for more conference details.

DETAILS AND REGISTRATION: WEBSITE

HOST: Centre for Visual Arts and Research (CVAR) with the support of the Cornaro Institute,
Cyprus College of Art

VENUE: Nicosia Museum
(Centre for Visual Arts and Research), Cyprus

Abstracts to:
Lisa Walters: Elizabeth.walters@ugent.be
Sara Mendelson: Mendelso@univmail.cis.mcmaster.ca
Brandie Siegfried: Brandie_Siegfried@byu.edu
Jim Fitzmaurice: j.fitzmaurice@sheffield.ac.uk
Alexandra G. Bennett: abennet1@niu.edu

The committee, which is as listed, will read abstracts as they appear. We have been able to make decisions reasonably quickly so far.

NOTE: For CFP and details please see "Forthcoming Conferences"

http://internationalmargaretcavendishsociety.org/




http://www.epigenesys.eu/en/science-and-you/women-in-science/651-lady-margaret-cavendish



https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/collectionsindepth/family/newcastle/biographies/biographyofmargaretcavendish,duchessofnewcastleupontyne%28c1623-1673%29.aspx