Translating Early Modern Thought: Selected Letters from Margaret Cavendish’s Philosophical Letters
Pedro Pricladnitzky
Journal for New Narratives in the History of Philosophy November 26, 2025 DOI: 10.21083/jnnhp.v1i.8477 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that Cavendish's Philosophical Letters develops a distinctive materialist philosophy in which matter is self-moving and has cognitive properties, challenging mechanistic and atomistic views through a synthesis of materialism, vitalism, and panpsychism. The authors contend that her repetitive, dialogical style serves as both philosophical strategy and a political gesture asserting women's authorship in the seventeenth century. |
Abstract
This paper presents the first stage of a translation project dedicated to Margaret Cavendish's Philosophical Letters (1664), making the work available in Portuguese. It includes the Preface and the first three letters, which outline Cavendish's intellectual goals and situate her within seventeenth-century debates on natural philosophy. Engaging with thinkers such as Descartes, Hobbes, More, and Van Helmont, Cavendish advances a distinctive materialist philosophy that conceives matter as self-moving and endowed with cognitive properties. In Philosophical Letters, she challenges mechanistic and atomistic views, offering instead a synthesis of materialism, vitalism, and panpsychism. The translation underscores Cavendish's rhetorical style, marked by repetition and dialogical framing, which serves both as a philosophical strategy and a political gesture to assert women's authorship in the seventeenth century. By making her writings accessible in Portuguese, the project seeks to broaden teaching and research on early modern women philosophers.