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person1658-1708

Damaris Masham

Disciplines:
ethics
epistemology
theology/philosophy of religion

Summary

English philosopher and daughter of Ralph Cudworth who was a close associate of John Locke and developed a Lockean rational virtue ethics emphasizing women's education.

Core Contribution

Argued that reason and religion are compatible; developed a virtue ethics grounded in reason and the love of God; was among the first to argue explicitly for women's rational and philosophical education.

Key Spikes & Highlights

  • Hosted John Locke for the last fourteen years of his life at her home in Essex — providing him intellectual companionship in his old age.
  • Criticized Leibniz's pre-established harmony as making God an idle spectator — preferring a world in which God and creatures genuinely interact.

Notable Works & Achievements

Occasional Thoughts in Reference to a Virtuous or Christian Life

A Discourse Concerning the Love of God

Historical Influences

John Locke Ralph Cudworth

Intellectual Lineage

Cambridge Platonism Lockean Empiricism Anglican Theology

Contemporaries & Peers

John Locke Mary Astell Catharine Trotter Cockburn

Minds Influenced

Catharine Trotter Cockburn Mary Astell

Intellectual Posterity

Early Women Philosophers Protestant Virtue Ethics

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