Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-skm99 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T06:06:05.965Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
Series:   Elements on Women in the History of Philosophy

Catharine Trotter Cockburn

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2023

Ruth Boeker
Ruth Boeker
Affiliation:
University College Dublin

Summary

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.
Get access

Keywords

Catharine Trotter Cockburnearly modern women philosopherseighteenth-century British moral philosophyhuman naturemetaphysics
Type
Element
Information
Series: Elements on Women in the History of Philosophy
Online ISBN: 9781009049160
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 13 July 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anon. (1697a) Remarks upon an Essay Concerning Humane Understanding in a Letter Address’d to the Author. London: Printed for M. Wotton.Google Scholar
Anon. (1697b) Second Remarks upon an Essay Concerning Humane Understanding in a Letter Address’d to the Author, Being a Vindication of the First Remarks against the Answer of Mr. Lock, at the End of His Reply to the Lord Bishop of Worcester. London: Printed for M. Wotton.Google Scholar
Anon. (1699) Third Remarks upon an Essay Concerning Humane Understanding in a Letter Address’d to the Author. London: Printed for M. Wotton.Google Scholar
Anstey, P. R. (2013) ‘Locke’s Moral Man, by Antonia LoLordo’. Mind 122 (488):1146–9.Google Scholar
Atherton, M. (2013) ‘Antonia LoLordo, Locke’s Moral Man’. Notre Dame Philosophical Review. https://ndpr.nd.edu/reviews/locke-s-moral-man/.Google Scholar
Bigold, M. (2013) Women of Letters, Manuscript Circulation, and Print Afterlives in the Eighteenth Century: Elizabeth Rowe, Catharine Cockburn, and Elizabeth Carter. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Birch, T. (1751) ‘The Life of Mrs. Catharine Cockburn’. In The Works of Mrs. Catharine Cockburn, edited by Birch, T., 1:i–xlviii. London: Printed for J. and P. Knapton.Google Scholar
Boeker, R. (2021a) ‘Locke on Being Self to My Self’. In The Self: A History, edited by Kitcher, P., 118–44. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Boeker, R. (2021b) Locke on Persons and Personal Identity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Boeker, R. (2022) ‘Hutcheson and His Critics and Opponents on the Moral Sense’. Journal of Scottish Philosophy 20 (2):143–61.Google Scholar
Boespflug, M., and Pasnau, R. (2022) ‘Locke on Enthusiasm’. In The Lockean Mind, edited by Gordon-Roth, J. and Weinberg, S., 554–63. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bolton, M. B. (1993) ‘Some Aspects of the Philosophical Work of Catharine Trotter’. Journal of the History of Philosophy 31 (4):565–88.Google Scholar
Bolton, M. B. (2016) ‘Locke on Thinking Matter’. In A Companion to Locke, edited by Stuart, M., 334–53. Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell.Google Scholar
Briscoe, S., ed. (1693) Letters of Love and Gallantry and Several Other Subjects. All written by Ladies. Vol. 1. London: Printed for S. Briscoe.Google Scholar
Broad, J. (2002) Women Philosophers of the Seventeenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Broad, J. (2014) ‘Women on Liberty in Early Modern England’. Philosophy Compass 9 (2):112–22.Google Scholar
Broad, J., ed. (2019) Women Philosophers of Seventeenth-Century England: Selected Correspondence. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broad, J., ed. (2020) Women Philosophers of Eighteenth-Century England: Selected Correspondence. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Broad, J. (2021) ‘Catharine Trotter Cockburn on the Virtue of Atheists’. Intellectual History Review 31 (1):111–28.Google Scholar
Butler, J. (2017) Fifteen Sermons and Other Writings on Ethics. Edited by McNaughton, D.. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Carter, E. (1809) A Series of Letters between Mrs. Elizabeth Carter and Miss Catherine Talbot, from the Year 1741 to 1770, to Which Are Added, Letters from Mrs. Elizabeth Carter to Mrs. Vesey, between the Years 1763 and 1787. 4 vols. London: Printed for F. C. and J. Rivington.Google Scholar
Chatterjee, J. D. (2020) ‘Christian Antiquity and the Anglican Reception of John Locke’s Paraphrase and Notes on the Epistles of St. Paul, 1707–1730’. Locke Studies 20:1–36.Google Scholar
Clarke, S. (1711 [1706]) A Discourse Concerning the Unchangeable Obligations of Natural Religion, and the Truth and Certainty of the Christian Revelation. 3rd ed. London: Printed by W. Botham, for J. Knapton.Google Scholar
Clarke, S. (1998 [1705]) A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God and Other Writings. Edited by Vailati, E.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cockburn, C. T. (1751) The Works of Mrs. Catharine Cockburn. Edited by Birch, T.. 2 vols. London: Printed for J. and P. Knapton.Google Scholar
Cockburn, C. T. (1751 [1727]) A Letter to Dr. Holdsworth. In vol. 1 of The Works of Mrs. Catharine Cockburn, edited by T. Birch, 113–53. London: Printed for J. and P. Knapton.Google Scholar
Cockburn, C. T. (2006 [1702]) A Defence of Mr. Locke’s Essay of Human Understanding. Edited by Sheridan, P.. Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press.Google Scholar
Cockburn, C. T. (2006 [1743]) Remarks upon Some Writers in the Controversy Concerning the Foundation of Moral Virtue and Moral Obligation. Edited by Sheridan, P.. Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press.Google Scholar
Cockburn, C. T. (2006 [1747]) Remarks upon the Principles and Reasonings of Dr. Rutherforth’s Essay on the Nature and Obligation of Virtue. Edited by Sheridan, P.. Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press.Google Scholar
Crisp, R. (2019) Sacrifice Regained: Morality and Self-Interest in British Moral Philosophy from Hobbes to Bentham. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Darwall, S. (1995) The British Moralists and the Internal ‘Ought’: 1640–1740. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Tommaso, E. M. (2017) ‘“Some Reflections upon the True Grounds of Morality”: Catharine Trotter in Defence of John Locke’. Philosophy Study 7 (6):326–39.Google Scholar
De Tommaso, E. M., and Mocchi, G.. (2021) ‘John Locke and Catharine Cockburn on Personal Identity’. Rivista di storia della filosofia (2021/2): 205–20.Google Scholar
Descartes, R. (1964–76) Ouvres de Descartes. Edited by Adam, C. and Tannery, P.. 12 vols. Paris: J. Vrin.Google Scholar
Descartes, R. (1984–91) The Philosophical Writings of Descartes. Translated and edited by Cottingham, J., Stoothoff, R., Murdoch, D., and Kenny, A.. 3 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Duncan, S. (2022) Materialism from Hobbes to Locke. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gay, J. (1732 [1731]) ‘Preliminary Dissertation Concerning the Fundamental Principle of Virtue or Morality’. In An Essay on the Origin of Evil, by Dr. William King, Late Lord Archbishop of Dublin, Translated from the Latin, with Notes; and a Dissertation Concerning the Principle and Criterion of Virtue and the Origin of the Passions, edited by Law, E., xxviii–lvii. London: Printed for W. Thurlbourn.Google Scholar
Gill, M. B. (1996) ‘Fantastick Associations and Addictive General Rules: A Fundamental Difference between Hutcheson and Hume’. Hume Studies 22 (1):23–48.Google Scholar
Gill, M. B. (2006) The British Moralists on Human Nature and the Birth of Secular Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gill, M. B. (2022) A Philosophy of Beauty: Shaftesbury on Nature, Virtue, and Art. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Gordon-Roth, J. (2015a) ‘Catharine Trotter Cockburn’s Defence of Locke’. The Monist 98 (1):64–76.Google Scholar
Gordon-Roth, J. (2015b) ‘Locke on the Ontology of Persons’. Southern Journal of Philosophy 53 (1):97–123.Google Scholar
Green, K. (2014) A History of Women’s Political Thought in Europe, 1700–1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Green, K. (2015) ‘A Moral Philosophy of Their Own? The Moral and Political Thought of Eighteenth-Century British Women’. The Monist 98 (1):89–101.Google Scholar
Green, K. (2019) ‘On Some Footnotes to Catharine Trotter Cockburn’s Defence of the Essay of Human Understanding’. British Journal for the History of Philosophy 27 (4):824–41.Google Scholar
Heydt, C. (2018) Moral Philosophy in Eighteenth-Century Britain: God, Self, and Other. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hobbes, T. (1994 [1651]) Leviathan: With Selected Variants from the Latin Edition of 1668. Edited by Curley, E.. Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
Holdsworth, W. (1720) A Sermon Preached before the University of Oxford at St Mary’s on Easter-Monday, 1719. London: Printed at the Theatre, for Rich. Wilkin at the King’s Head in St Paul’s Church Yard.Google Scholar
Holdsworth, W. (1727) A Defence of the Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Same Body: In Two Parts. London: Printed for C. Rivington.Google Scholar
Hutcheson, F. (2002 [1728]) An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections, with Illustrations on the Moral Sense. Edited by Garrett, A.. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.Google Scholar
Hutcheson, F. (2004 [1725]) An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue. Edited by Leidhold, W.. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.Google Scholar
Hutton, S. (2017) ‘Liberty of the Mind: Women Philosophers and the Freedom to Philosophize’. In Women and Liberty, 1600–1800: Philosophical Essays, edited by Broad, J. and Detlefsen, K., 123–37. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Irwin, T. (2007) The Development of Ethics: A Historical and Critical Study. 3 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, T. (1731) An Essay on Moral Obligation: With a View Towards Settling the Controversy, Concerning Moral and Positive Duties. London: Printed by J. S. for W. Thurlbourn.Google Scholar
Johnston, G. (1732) The Eternal Obligation of Natural Religion, or, The Foundation of Morality to God and Man: Being An Answer to Dr. Wright’s Remarks upon Mr. Mole’s Sermon. London: Printed for T. Cox.Google Scholar
Jolley, N. (2015) Locke’s Touchy Subjects: Materialism and Immortality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kelley, A. (2002) Catharine Trotter: An Early Modern Vanguard of Feminism. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Kelley, A. (2004) ‘Trotter [married name Cockburn], Catharine’. In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kelley, A., ed. (2006a) Catharine Trotter’s The Adventures of a Young Lady and Other Works. Adlershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Kelley, A. (2006b) ‘Introductory Note’. In Catharine Trotter’s The Adventures of a Young Lady and Other Works, edited by Kelley, A., vii–xiii. Adlershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Kim, H.-K. (2019) Locke’s Ideas of Mind and Body. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lascano, M. P. (2019) ‘Women Philosophers and the Cosmological Argument: A Case Study in Feminist History of Philosophy’. In Feminist History of Philosophy: The Recovery and Evaluation of Women’s Philosophical Thought, edited by O’Neill, E. and Lascano, M. P., 23–47. Cham, Switz.: Springer.Google Scholar
Law, E., ed. (1732 [1731]) An Essay on the Origin of Evil, by Dr. William King, Late Lord Archbishop of Dublin, Translated from the Latin, with Notes; and A Dissertation Concerning the Principle and Criterion of Virtue and the Origin of the Passions. 2nd ed. London: Printed for W. Thurlbourn.Google Scholar
Law, E. (1769) A Defence of Mr. Locke’s Opinion Concerning Personal Identity; in Answer to the First Part of a Late Essay on That Subject. Cambridge: Printed by J. Archdeacon.Google Scholar
Leibniz, G. W. (1996) New Essays on Human Understanding. Edited by Remnant, P. and Bennett, J.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Leisinger, M. A. (2019) ‘Locke on Persons and Other Kinds of Substances’. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 100 (1):129–55.Google Scholar
Locke, J. (1823) The Works of John Locke. New, corrected ed. 10 vols. London: Thomas Tegg.Google Scholar
Locke, J. (1976–89) The Correspondence of John Locke. Edited by de Beer, E. S.. 8 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
LoLordo, A. (2011) ‘Person, Substance, Mode and “The Moral Man” in Locke’s Philosophy’. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 40 (4):643–67.Google Scholar
LoLordo, A. (2012) Locke’s Moral Man. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
LoLordo, A. (2013) ‘Three Problems in Locke’s Ontology of Substance and Mode’. In Contemporary Perspectives on Early Modern Philosophy: Nature and Norms in Thought, edited by Lenz, M. and Waldow, A., 51–64. Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
Lovejoy, A. O. (1936) The Great Chain of Being. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lucci, D. (2021) Locke’s Christianity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lustila, G. L. (2020) ‘Catharine Trotter Cockburn’s Democratization of Moral Virtue’. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 50 (1):83–97.Google Scholar
Mandeville, B. (1723 [1714]) Fable of the Bees, or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits. 2nd ed. London: Printed for E. Parker.Google Scholar
Maurer, C. (2019) Self-love, Egoism and the Selfish Hypothesis: Key Debates from Eighteenth-Century British Moral Philosophy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Millar, A. (1988) ‘Following Nature’. Philosophical Quarterly 38 (151):165–85.Google Scholar
Miller, A. (2003) An Introduction to Contemporary Metaethics. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Montagu, E. (n.d.) Elizabeth Montagu Correspondence Online. Swansea University. https://emco.swansea.ac.uk.Google Scholar
Myers, J. E. (2012) ‘Catharine Trotter and the Claims of Conscience’. Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 31 (1–2):53–75.Google Scholar
Myers, S. H. (1990) The Bluestocking Circle: Women, Friendship, and the Life of the Mind in Eighteenth-Century England. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Nuovo, V. (2011) Christianity, Antiquity, and Enlightenment: Interpretations of Locke. Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
Ready, K. J. (2002) ‘Damaris Cudworth Masham, Catharine Trotter Cockburn, and the Feminist Legacy of Locke’s Theory of Personal Identity’. Eighteenth-Century Studies 35 (4):563–76.Google Scholar
Rickless, S. C. (2015) ‘Are Locke’s Persons Modes or Substances?’ In Locke and Leibniz on Substance, edited by Lodge, P. and Stoneham, T., 110–27. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Rickless, S. C. (2017) ‘Locke’s Ontology of Relations’. Locke Studies 17:61–86.Google Scholar
Rutherforth, T. (1744) An Essay on the Nature and Obligations of Virtue. Cambridge: Printed by J. Bentham.Google Scholar
Schneewind, J. B. (1998) The Invention of Autonomy: A History of Modern Moral Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Shaftesbury, A. A. C. (2001 [1711]) Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times. Edited by den Uyl, D. J.. 3 vols. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.Google Scholar
Sheridan, P. (2006) ‘Introduction’. In Philosophical Writings, by Catharine Trotter Cockburn, edited by Sheridan, P.. Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press.Google Scholar
Sheridan, P. (2007) ‘Reflection, Nature, and Moral Law: The Extent of Catharine Cockburn’s Lockeanism in Her Defence of Mr. Locke’s Essay’. Hypatia 22 (3):133–51.Google Scholar
Sheridan, P. (2018a) ‘On Catharine Trotter Cockburn’s Metaphysics of Morality’. In Early Modern Women on Metaphysics, edited by Thomas, E., 247–65. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sheridan, P. (2018b) ‘Virtue, Affection, and the Social Good: The Moral Philosophy of Catharine Trotter Cockburn and the Bluestockings’. Philosophy Compass 13 (3):e12478.Google Scholar
Sheridan, P. (2022) ‘Locke and Catharine Trotter Cockburn’. In The Lockean Mind, edited by Gordon-Roth, J. and Weinberg, S., 27–32. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.Google Scholar
Stuart-Buttle, T. (2019) From Moral Theology to Moral Philosophy: Cicero and Visions of Humanity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sund, E. M. K. A. (2013) ‘Catharine Trotter Cockburn’s Moral Philosophy’. PhD Dissertation, Monash University.Google Scholar
Tabb, K. (2019) ‘Locke on Enthusiasm and the Association of Ideas’. In Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy, edited by Rutherford, D., 75–104. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tabb, K. (2022) ‘Habituation and the Association of Ideas in Locke’s Developmental Psychology’. In The Lockean Mind, edited by Gordon-Roth, J. and Weinberg, S., 385–95. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.Google Scholar
Thiel, U. (2011) The Early Modern Subject: Self-Consciousness and Personal Identity from Descartes to Hume. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Thiel, U. (2012) ‘Religion and Materialist Metaphysics: Some Aspects of the Debate about the Resurrection of the Body in Eighteenth-Century Britain’. In Philosophy and Religion in Enlightenment Britain: New Case Studies, edited by Savage, R., 90–111. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Thomas, E. (2013) ‘Catharine Cockburn on Substantival Space’. History of Philosophy Quarterly 30 (3):195–214.Google Scholar
Thomas, E. (2015) ‘Catharine Cockburn on Unthinking Immaterial Substance: Souls, Space, and Related Matters’. Philosophy Compass 10 (4):255–63.Google Scholar
Thomas, E. (2017) ‘Creation, Divine Freedom, and Catharine Cockburn: An Intellectualist on Possible Worlds and Contingent Laws’. In Women and Liberty, 1600–1800: Philosophical Essays, edited by Broad, J. and Detlefsen, K., 206–20. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Thomas, E. (2018) Absolute Time: Rifts in Early Modern British Metaphysics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Toland, J. (2013 [1704]) Letters to Serena. Edited by Leask, I.. Dublin: Four Courts Press.Google Scholar
Tuckness, A. (1999) ‘The Coherence of a Mind: John Locke and the Law of Nature’. Journal of the History of Philosophy 37 (1):73–90.Google Scholar
Waithe, M. E., ed. (1987–95) A History of Women Philosophers. 4 vols. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Walmsley, J. C., Craig, H., and Burrows, J.. (2016) ‘The Authorship of the Remarks upon an Essay Concerning Humane Understanding’. Eighteenth-Century Thought 6:205–43.Google Scholar
Warburton, W. (1738) The Divine Legation of Moses Demonstrated, on the Principles of a Religious Deist, from the Omission of the Doctrine of a Future State of Reward and Punishment in the Jewish Dispensation. London: Printed for F. Gyles.Google Scholar
Ward, R. W. (1995) ‘Divine Will, Natural Law and the Voluntarism/Intellectualism Debate in Locke’. History of Political Thought 16 (2):208–18.Google Scholar
Warren, H. C. (1921) A History of the Association Psychology from Hartley to Lewes. Baltimore: Charles Scribner’s Sons.Google Scholar
Watts, I. (1733) Philosophical Essays on Various Subjects. London: Printed for R. Ford and R. Hett.Google Scholar
Winkler, K. P. (1991) ‘Locke on Personal Identity’. Journal of the History of Philosophy 29 (2):201–26.Google Scholar
Yolton, J. W. (1983) Thinking Matter: Materialism in Eighteenth-Century Britain. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar

Save element to Kindle

To save this element to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Catharine Trotter Cockburn
  • Ruth Boeker, University College Dublin
  • Online ISBN: 9781009049160
Available formats
×

Save element to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Catharine Trotter Cockburn
  • Ruth Boeker, University College Dublin
  • Online ISBN: 9781009049160
Available formats
×

Save element to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Catharine Trotter Cockburn
  • Ruth Boeker, University College Dublin
  • Online ISBN: 9781009049160
Available formats
×