A3 Book section, Chapters in research books
Reason, passion, imagination (2019)


Reuter, Martina (2019). Reason, passion, imagination. In Bergès, Sandrine; Hunt Botting, Eileen; Coffee, Alan (Eds.) The Wollstonecraftian Mind. Abingdon: Routledge, 338-350. DOI: 10.4324/9781315186788-27


JYU authors or editors


Publication details

All authors or editors: Reuter, Martina

Parent publication: The Wollstonecraftian Mind

Parent publication editors: Bergès, Sandrine; Hunt Botting, Eileen; Coffee, Alan

ISBN: 978-1-138-70997-3

eISBN: 978-1-315-18678-8

Publication year: 2019

Pages range: 338-350

Number of pages in the book: 512

Publisher: Routledge

Place of Publication: Abingdon

Publication country: United Kingdom

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315186788-27

Open Access: Publication channel is not openly available


Abstract

Mary Wollstonecraft establishes the role of reason right at the beginning of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and her statement includes the generic use of “man”, an emphasis on the need to control the passions and a hierarchical distinction between humans and other animals. All these are features that have created worries among twentieth- and twenty-first-century feminists (e.g. Lloyd 1984; Squires 1999; Grosz 2005). In order to appreciate Wollstonecraft’s feminism it is therefore important to understand the philosophical basis for her views on the relation between
reason and passion as well as between humans and other animals.

In this chapter I discuss Wollstonecraft’s concept of reason and its relations to the passions and the imagination. My aim is to show how her feminist philosophy is connected to these three mental capacities and how it is dependent on them all. The chapter divides into three sections, focusing respectively on reason, passion and imagination. I will address the following questions: Why does Wollstonecraft think that feminist arguments need to be based on reason? How does her view on the relation between reason and passion differ from the dichotomous view often assumed by twenty-first-century philosophers? How does the imagination contribute to human cognition as well as to the creation of a feminist future?


Keywords: feminist philosophy; reason; argumentation; emotions; passion; imagination

Free keywords: Wollstonecraft, Mary

Fields of science:


Contributing organizations


Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2019

JUFO rating: 3


Last updated on 2020-09-07 at 11:55