Women's Education or Why We Shouldn't Read Novels According to Hume
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
We centered our research on the analysis of the essay Of the Study of History, in which female readers are both discouraged to consume fictional literature and portrayed as eager for this type of reading. After analyzing what is the importance of education in Hume's philosophy and what are the benefits the study of history adds to this purpose briefly, we focused on examining why reading novels is contrary to mankind's instruction. To this end, we offered a featuring of the type of literature Hume thinks of when he refers to “romances and novels”, known as “amatory fiction” today. Likewise, we explored the work of a well-known author of the period, namely, Eliza Haywood. To conclude, we posed three hypotheses meant to explain why the philosopher recommends that women should stay away from these romantic fictions.
- Mankind Education
- Romances and Novels
- Female Readers
- Female Experience
- Male World
Ballaster, R. (1992). Seductive Forms: Women's Amatory Fiction from 1684 to 1740. Oxford University Press.
Benedict, B. (1998). The Curious Genre: Female Inquiry in Amatory Fiction. Studies in the Novel, 30(2), 194-210.
Calvente, S. (2016). La especie inventiva: similitudes y diferencias entre humanos y animales en la filosofía de Hume. Revista Latinoamericana de filosofía, XLII(2), 125-147.
Díaz Sánchez, I. (2023). La instrucción moral en la prensa inglesa del siglo XVIII: The Spectator y The Female Spectator. La influencia de Eliza Haywood. Revista de historia moderna, (41), 198-219. https://doi.org/10.14198/rhm.24804 DOI: https://doi.org/10.14198/rhm.24804
Fitzgerald, P. (2006). A Scribbiling Dame” Eliza Haywood’s Literary Reputation and the Female Spectator [Tesis de Maestría no publicada]. California State University San Marcos.
Gonzales, C. (2017). Making Space: The Case for Amatory Fiction, 1660-1740 [Tesis de Doctorado no publicada]. University of Houston.
Hume, D. [E]. (1987). Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary (E. Miller, Ed.). Liberty Fund.
Hume, D. [EHU]. (2007). An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (S. Buckle, Ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Hume, D. [T]. (2011). A Treatise of Human Nature (D. Norton y M. Norton, Eds.). Oxford University Press.
Hume, D. [AHI]. (2013). Sobre el estudio de la historia y los Apéndices de la “Historia de Inglaterra” (E. Ujaldón, Ed.). Siglo XXI.
Immerwahr, J. (1991). The Anatomist and the Painter: The Continuity of Hume’s Treatise and Essays. Hume Studies, 17(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1353/hms.2011.0419 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/hms.2011.0419
King, K. (2016). A Political Biography of Eliza Haywood. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315653013 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315653013
Mossner, E. C. (1970). The Life of David Hume. Oxford University Press.
Pérez Curiel, B. (2020). Eliza Haywood’s Love in Excess: Women, the Enlightenment, and the Trap of Reason. Anuario de letras modernas, 23(1), 38-47. https://doi.org/10.22201/ffyl.01860526p.2020.23.1070 DOI: https://doi.org/10.22201/ffyl.01860526p.2020.23.1070
Pope, A. (1728). The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. In three books. A. Dood.
Trabal, J. (1995). Ensayos suprimidos y niveles de discurso en la obra de D. Hume. Telos, IV(1), 147-199.
Ujaldón, E. (Ed.). (2013). Introducción. En Hume, D. Sobre el estudio de la historia y los Apéndices de la “Historia de Inglaterra” (pp. 9-38). Siglo XXI.
Downloads
Accepted 2025-03-25
Published 2025-06-05
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
De acuerdo con nuestra política (Licencia Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) los artículos presentados y sometidos al proceso editorial en la revista Praxis Filosófica no tienen costo alguno para sus autores ni retribuciones económicas para la revista. El artículo de carácter inédito, producto de investigación o de algún proyecto que se presente a Praxis Filosófica, no podrá estar sometido a otro proceso de publicación durante el proceso que se lleve en nuestra revista.