Natalie (Section #1) -- How to Think Like Mary Astell

 Hey everyone! My final report blog post is based on the book How to Think Like a Woman by Regan Penaluna; specifically, I focused on Mary Astell and her book A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, which were covered in How to Think Like a Woman.

Here is Penaluna’s book in case you’d like to give it a read. It’s also available at the library J

How to Think Like a Woman

The first philosopher Penaluna’s book highlights is Mary Astell (1666-1731), an English philosopher best known for her thoughts on the education of women and her critiques of John Norris and John Locke. 

“One wou’d therefore almost think, that the wise disposer of all things, foreseeing how unjustly Women are denied opportunities of improvement from without, has therefore by way of compensation endow’d them with greater propensions to Vertue and a natural goodness of Temper within, which is duly manag’d, would raise them to the most eminent pitch of heroic Vertue.”

                                                                                                                              --Mary Astell

Astell was born at a time when about twenty-five percent of women could write, and gender was more determinative of the quality of one’s education than class. Women were prohibited from most intellectual spheres, yet Astell became one of the most well-known intellectuals of her age.

Astell grew up in Newcastle, England and generations of her family had been employed in the coal industry. By the time she was born, local mines were running low and profits were shrinking. This meant Astell would not have a dowry and would have to devote her married life to domestic work—something she did not want to do.

Astell’s education was mostly provided by her uncle Ralph Astell who tutored her at a local church. At this time, there were no girls’ schools in Newcastle. After attempting to deliver a sermon drunk, Ralph was replaced and moved in with the Astells, which may have accelerated Mary’s lessons. 

A Serious Proposal

A Serious Proposal to the Ladies

Helpful summary of this text

In How to Think Like A Woman, Penaluna opens the chapter by talking about Astell’s book titled A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, which tackled several issues already discussed by other philosophers, yet had a unique core message: “educate women so they can pursue personal happiness and contribute to society.” 

In this text, Astell argues not that women are materially oppressed by a patriarchal society; she argues that their selves are corrupted—they lack autonomy and are governed by the whims of their emotions. However, she didn’t think that this corruption was by nature; she believed the key causes of these issues are poor education and custom. She believed that instead of learning appropriate things, like their true nature or the nature of God, women were educated in mistaken principles, such as the importance of men’s principles. She writes that women are ignorant with their vices because they were not taught how to think and lack the “Judgement and Skill to discern between reality and pretence” and end up valuing themselves on their beauty or money. Custom, the other contributor to women’s self-corruption, is the combination of habits and societal forces that make it difficult for women, in Astell’s view, to self-improve. By being repeatedly vain and foolish instead of being rational, women “spoil the contexture and frame of [their] minds” and “render [them] selves incapable of any serious and improving thought.” Also, women who didn’t act in accordance with societal norms were likely to face social disapproval, which was a strong motivator against self-improvement. To remedy these issues, Astell suggests something that she is best-known for today: the establishment of an all-female educational community. In this secluded community, women would devote themselves to education and “Vertue” and develop positive habits while being shielded from the temptations of the everyday world. Part II of A Serious Proposal details the regimen women inside her community would follow, which involved meditation, reading, philosophical reflection, and emotional self-control. The result of Astell’s method is not a societal change, but an internal transformation. The female reader will gain autonomy instead of being subject to her own emotions or societal customs.

Thoughts on and Critiques of Mary Astell’s A Serious Proposal to the Ladies

The first thing that stood out to me in reading about A Serious Proposal is Astell’s emphasis on the importance of habit, which reminded me of William James’ philosophy. Part of her idea to “cure” women’s corrupted selves was to form better habits that cultivate more rational, independent lifestyles. Aristotle also acknowledged the importance of habit: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act. It is a habit” (SSHM 72). 

I agree with the view that habit is important and significantly impacts one’s life; healthy habits create a healthy lifestyle. I have to actively work to maintain healthy habits, and I’d imagine it would amplify the difficulty of maintaining good habits if there were societal pressures to maintain bad ones. 

Do you think repeated bad habits “corrupt” someone? To what extent are our developed habits impacted by society? Do you think society contributes more positively or negatively to the development of good habits in yourself and in individuals? How so? 

One thing I thought was interesting was Astell’s acknowledgment of the society’s impact of women’s habit formation and difficulty in breaking bad habits, and her dismissiveness towards society as the cause of this issue. I think it’s interesting that her argument was framed around the problem with women instead of the problem with society; it seems hypocritical to me to acknowledge that society is what led to the “corruption” of women and blame the women themselves for this issue. Furthermore, the solution suggested by Astell focuses on removing women from society. To me, it seems like if societal pressures and women’s lack of education were the problem, you could “kill two birds with one stone” by fixing society, which does seem like what we’ve attempted to do today. In Astell’s time, it’s likely that idea would be much too ambitious. However, I still think it’s an interesting choice for Astell to have placed most of the blame on women in this situation. In addition, after a woman undergoes Astell’s method of transformation, the societal pressures Astell acknowledged will still exist; this seems to me like something that would challenge upholding Astell’s teachings. I don’t think Astell’s method, as detailed by this book, would best lead to change for women in that society. Also, the emphasis on the corruption of the women and removal from society seems like a slippery slope into being used to support discrimination against women. 

To what extent can we blame external forces for our habits? Is it more important for an individual to fix their habits in spite of societal challenges or more important for a society to fix its habits?

While I have some critiques of Astell’s ideas presented in this book, I also can appreciate the way she encourages women to have agency in their lives and take control of their own intellect. In this time, women had very little agency over much of their lives; they mostly could not go to school and were dependent on men financially. In a world in which many women lacked agency, Astell was encouraging them to take control of this aspect of their lives.

There’s much more I’d like to research about Astell’s philosophy in the future, and I’ve really enjoyed reading more about feminist philosophy in Penaluna’s book and in my research for this blog post. The other female philosophers highlighted in Penaluna’s How to Think Like a Woman are Damaris Cudworth Masham, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Catharine Trotter Cockburn. 

If you’re interested in learning more about Mary Astell’s philosophy, here is a YouTube video I found:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLZKsUjAFM4

Thank you for reading, and I hope you all have a great summer!