Margaret Cavendish and the New Science

Abstract

In her work, Observations Upon Experimental Philosophy, Margaret Cavendish argued against “experimental and dioptrical writers,” provided her own account of the natural world, investigated aspects of chemistry, medicine, and the nature of heat and color, as well as many other topics in natural philosophy. This chapter explores Margaret Cavendish’s critiques of the seventeenth-century “new science.” The first section provides a brief overview of Cavendish’s views on the nature of bodies and perception. The second section regards her critique of the methods and aims of the new science as represented by Bacon and Boyle. The third section examines her critique of Hooke and the instruments of experimentalism. The final section lays out her feminist critique of the institution of the new science.