Catharine Trotter Cockburn

Description

This Element offers the first detailed study of Catharine Trotter Cockburn's philosophy and covers her contributions to philosophical debates in epistemology, metaphysics, moral philosophy, and philosophy of religion. It not only examines Cockburn's view that sensation and reflection are the sources of knowledge, but also how she draws attention to the limitations of human understanding and how she approaches metaphysical debates through this lens. In the area of moral philosophy, this Element argues that it is helpful to take seriously Cockburn's distinction between questions concerning the metaphysical foundation of morality and questions concerning the practice of morality. Moreover, this Element examines Cockburn's religious views and considers her understanding of the relation between morality and religion and her religious views concerning the resurrection and the afterlife. Cover Title page Copyright page Catharine Trotter Cockburn Contents 1 Catharine Trotter Cockburn’s Life and Works 1.1 Life and Career as Writer, Playwright, and Philosopher 1.2 Philosophical Works 1.2.1 A Defence of Mr. Locke’s Essay of Human Understanding 1.2.2 A Letter to Dr. Holdsworth 1.2.3 A Vindication of Mr. Locke’s Christian Principles 1.2.4 Remarks upon Some Writers 1.2.5 Remarks upon the Principles and Reasonings of Dr. Rutherforth’s Essay 1.3 Summary 2 Epistemology and Metaphysics 2.1 Knowledge and Its Limitations 2.1.1 Sources of Knowledge 2.1.2 Knowledge of God’s Attributes 2.1.3 Limitations of Knowledge 2.2 Persons, Souls, Immortality, and Immateriality 2.2.1 Persons and Personal Identity 2.2.2 Souls, Thinking, and Immortality 2.2.3 Materiality and Immateriality 2.3 God, Substances, and Space 2.3.1 God and Necessary Existence 2.3.2 Space 3 Moral Philosophy 3.1 Moral Metaphysics 3.1.1 Human Nature 3.1.2 Moral Fitnesses 3.1.3 Moral Naturalism 3.2 Moral Practice 3.2.1 Fitnesses of Things 3.2.2 Conscience or the Moral Sense 3.2.3 Will of God 3.3 Intellectualism and Voluntarism 3.4 Self-interest, Self-love, and Benevolence 4 Religion 4.1 Morality and Religion 4.1.1 Virtue of Atheists 4.1.2 Reason, Education, and Revelation 4.1.3 Christianity and Morality 4.2 Resurrection and the Afterlife 5 Cockburn’s Significance List of Abbreviations References Acknowledgements