In dialogue with Thomas Hobbes: Margaret Cavendish's natural philosophy

Abstract

It is well documented that Margaret Cavendish came into close contact with many of the great thinkers of mid-seventeenth-century Europe. When read in the context of the work of Thomas Hobbes, in particular his De Corpore of 1655, Cavendish's own natural philosophy may be better understood not merely as a product of, but also as a valid contribution to, this wider intellectual context. Understanding her Philosophical Letters (1664), her Blazing World (1666), and her Grounds of Natural Philosophy (1668) in such a light may go some way towards redeeming her philosophical reputation from those contemporary, and modern, critics, who have sought to demean it.