Mary Shepherd on the role of proofs in our knowledge of first principles

Folescu, Marina

doi:10.1111/nous.12365

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…The contradiction in saying that a thing begins of itself, then, is that one is both denying that the object exists until it has begun and affirming that it already exists in order to perform the action of beginning itself. Or, as she puts it, 'existence, in order to be, must begin to be, ² See, inter alia, Atherton (1996), Bolton (2011Bolton ( , 2021, Boyle (2017Boyle ( , 2020Boyle ( , 2021a, Fantl (2016), Folescu (2021), Lolordo (2019), and McRobert (n.d.).…”

Section: Shepherd Causation and Anti-naturalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…What can be said for Shepherd's view? Consider the ⁵ Several interpreters-Bolton (2021), Folescu (2021), andPaoletti (2011)-argue that all of Shepherd's arguments for the causal principle are question-begging. For Folescu, on her own terms Shepherd should have regarded the causal principle as foundational and intuitive rather than being provable by demonstration.…”

Section: Shepherd Causation and Anti-naturalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Women Philosophers in Nineteenth-Century Britain

Stone

2022

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Many women wrote philosophy in nineteenth-century Britain, and they wrote across the full range of philosophical topics. Yet these important women thinkers have been left out of the philosophical canon and many of them are barely known today. This book puts them back on the map. The book introduces twelve women philosophers: Mary Shepherd, Harriet Martineau, Ada Lovelace, George Eliot, Frances Power Cobbe, Helena Blavatsky, Julia Wedgwood, Victoria Welby, Arabella Buckley, Annie Besant, Vernon Lee, and Constance Naden. The book examines their views on naturalism, philosophy of mind, the meaning of evolution, morality and religion, and progress in history. The book shows how these women interacted and developed their philosophical views in conversation with one another, not only with their male contemporaries. The rich print and periodical culture enabled these women to publish philosophy in forms accessible to a general readership, despite the restrictions women faced, such as having limited or no access to university education. The book explains how these women became excluded from the history of philosophy because, at the end of the nineteenth century, there was a change towards specialized forms of philosophical writing which depended on academic credentials that were still largely unavailable to women.

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Section: Shepherd Causation and Anti-naturalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Shepherd Causation and Anti-naturalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Women Philosophers in Nineteenth-Century Britain

Stone

2022

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“…3 Scholars have struggled to understand Shepherd's claim that a beginning of existence is an action as anything other than a question-begging move on her part (Fantl 2016). More recently, scholars have addressed this worry by highlighting the context of Shepherd's proof in her broader epistemology and philosophy of mind (Bolton 2010;2019;Landy 2020a;Folescu 2022), but, even when this broader context is taken into consideration, Shepherd's premises are perplexing. We still need an explanation of the premises' justification.…”

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confidence: 99%

Shepherd’s Case for the Demonstrability of Causal Principles

Cruz

2024

Ergo an Open Access Journal of Philosophy

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Shepherd’s philosophy centers on her rejection of Hume’s arguments against the demonstrability of causal principles. According to Shepherd, the causal maxim—everything that begins to exist must have a cause—is demonstratively true. She begins her first major philosophical work with a proof of this maxim. While scholars have complained that the proof seems blatantly circular, a closer look at Shepherd’s texts and their Lockean background dispels this worry. Shepherd’s premises are motivated not by the causal maxim or her theory of causation, but by a metaphysics that distinguishes between substances and affections and by an empirical understanding of a ‘beginning of existence.’

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‘God said “Let us make man in our image after our likeness”’ – Mary Shepherd, the imago-dei-thesis, and the human mind

Fasko

2022

British Journal for the History of Philosophy

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This paper explores the role that Mary Shepherd's (1777-1847) acceptance of the so-called imago-dei thesis plays for her account of the human mind. That is, it analyses Shepherd's commitment to the doctrine that humans are created in the image of God, (see Gen. 1, 26-7) parts of which Shepherd quotes in Essays on the Perception of an External Universe (EPEU), 157, and the ways it informs her understanding of the human mind. In particular, it demonstrates how this thesis informs her understanding of the cognitive and moral capacities of the human mind. In other words, I argue that her commitment to this thesis explains why she believes that human beings are capable of reaching the "higher acquirement of intelligence" and the "completion of virtuous habits" (EPEU 381). Thus, this paper highlights the relevance of Shepherd's theological assumptions to (the ever-growing number of) scholars interested in her understanding of the mind.

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Mary Shepherd on the role of proofs in our knowledge of first principles

Cited by 7 publications

References 22 publications

Women Philosophers in Nineteenth-Century Britain

Women Philosophers in Nineteenth-Century Britain

Shepherd’s Case for the Demonstrability of Causal Principles

‘God said “Let us make man in our image after our likeness”’ – Mary Shepherd, the imago-dei-thesis, and the human mind

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