Contemporary Conversations

Wollstonecraft:
“Do you believe that women are silly and centrally incapable of understanding the world?”

Hume:
“No, I was raised by a “widowed mother” who was “devoted to the education” of my siblings and my self, exhibiting a strong character and will.”

Wollstonecraft:
“I have observed before in my book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman that society believes, ‘that women are formed for softness and sweet attractive grace’ remaining ignorant throughout life” why in your opinion has this continued?”

Hume:
“As I have said before in my essay An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, ‘the easy and obvious philosophy will always, with the generality of mankind, have the preference above the accurate and abstruse; and by many will be recommended, not only as more agreeable, but more useful than the other.’”

Wollstonecraft:
“Too true I have often observed that it is natural for man to assume that the first plausible explanation or lesson they are given is all the truth regardless of new information. Your mother must have been a most sensible and organized woman.”


Hume, D. (1748). An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Retrieved October 22, 2007, from http://ecampus.uwyo.edu/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=2609764&CPURL=ecampus.uwyo.edu&Survey=1&47=2371277&ClientNodeID=8216&coursenav=0&bhcp=1.Wollstonecraft,

M. (1792). A Vindication of the Rights of Women. Retrieved October 22, 2007, from http://ecampus.uwyo.edu/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=2609764&CPURL=ecampus.uwyo.edu&Survey=1&47=2371277&ClientNodeID=8216&coursenav=0&bhcp=1.

Peter Landry
Landry, Peter. (2007). David Hume. Retrieved October 22, 2007, from
http://www.ourcivilisation.com/smartboard/shop/humed/about.htm