Introduction
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) was an English philosopher in the Enlightenment tradition, writer, novelist, and book reviewer. She was an advocate for women’s rights and for equality of wealth and privilege and supported the French Revolution. She made her name in 1790 as the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Men, the first published commentary on Edmund Burke’s critique of the French Revolution and defense of aristocratic privilege. Her book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, published in 1792, counts as a pioneering work in the history of feminism.
Intellectual Life
Wollstonecraft was born in London into a middle-class family with seven children. Her grandfather had made good money in the weaving trade, which he left to Wollstonecraft’s father, a man of seemingly few skills who managed to squander his inheritance. From Wollstonecraft’s early childhood and until she left the family home in her late teens, her father moved the family several times, trying...
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Halldenius, L. (2019). Wollstonecraft, Mary. In: Sellers, M., Kirste, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_467-1
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