MC-EuCon
Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673) in the history of European ideas of consciousness

Questions about consciousness, its origin and presence in nature, which dominate present-day debates in philosophy of mind, arose during the 17th century. Against Descartes’s mind-body dualism and his attribution of mental life to humans alone, Cavendish argued for a wholly material, yet wholly thinking universe. By providing one of the earliest and most original responses to Descartes’s theories, Cavendish played a seminal role in the European history of the concept of consciousness. Her work offers a rich opportunity for developing our understanding of how problems about consciousness evolved and were addressed in Europe in the early modern period. 

However, since no specific word for ‘consciousness’ was available in the philosophical vocabulary of her day, extrapolating her views on the topic is problematic. The MC-EuCon project focuses on texts of Cavendish and her interlocutors, in order to reconstruct her vocabulary related to consciousness and clarify her theory. It then assesses the significance of her ideas for past and present-day debates in philosophy of mind.

Cavendish’s ideas on the nature of conscious thought are embedded in metaphysical and cosmological considerations. The core research activities consist, therefore, in close-reading analyses and interpretations of 17th-century texts by Cavendish and her intellectual network (with particular regard to members of the so-called “Cavendish Circle”, named after her husband William Cavendish, and gathering thinkers such as Hobbes, Descartes, and Digby), in order to discern and understand her terminology and ideas about consciousness in their historical contexts. These texts deal with metaphysics, ethics, natural philosophy, and observations on early modern scientific methods. Comparative analyses with other monist and panpsychist thinkers contemporary to Cavendish (most notably Spinoza) will also be performed, in order to highlight and assess the original traits of Cavendish’s theory. The research is assisted by the use of secondary academic literature in the fields of history of early modern philosophy and present-day philosophy of mind, in order to increase knowledge of the intellectual and historical contexts in which Cavendish’s theory developed, and to provide present-day notions regarding consciousness and its functions that can work as heuristic interpretive devices.

Events

30 April 2024 - Workshop: “The Cavendish Circle: Philosophical Networks in the 17th Century”
Aula Valent, Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Malcanton Marcorà, Dorsoduro 3484/D, Venice, Italy.

Papers presented in the workshop investigate ways in which philosophical and scientific ideas were discussed and circulated through the mediation and within the context of the so-called “Cavendish Circle” during the 1640s. By gathering five expert contributors, the event aims to shed light on a vibrant intellectual context, which was seminal for the advancement of the ideas of pivotal thinkers in the history of European philosophy, such as Thomas Hobbes, René Descartes, Margaret Cavendish, Pierre Gassendi, Kenelm Digby, and Walter Charleton. Papers discussed in the workshop will be submitted for a special issue in “Hobbes Studies” (forthcoming in 2025).

Invited speakers:

• Julia Borcherding (University of Cambridge)
• Stephen Clucas (Birkbeck, University of London)
• Karolina Hübner (Cornell University)
• Antonia LoLordo (University of Virginia)
• Timothy Raylor (Carleton College)