Abstract
Although Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) is not usually numbered among the canonical theorists of friendship, friendship was of central importance to her thinking. Drawing from two of her philosophical works, A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790) and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), this chapter explores her discussions of friendship as a bond among citizens, between spouses, and within families. Wollstonecraft associates friendship with a cluster of goods such as equality, respect, confidence, esteem, rationality, virtue, stability, and choice. Friendship focuses on moral character rather than physical appearance. Wanting to see these qualities of friendship percolate through as many areas and types of social interaction as possible, she hoped that the advent of the French Revolution would foster this possibility.
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