The BSHP Antognazza Lecture (formally the Annual Lecture), features an accessible paper from a distinguished speaker in the history of philosophy. It is normally held in the autumn at a UK university. Attendance is free, and everyone is welcome.
The Antognzza Lecture is named in memory of Prof. Maria Rosa Antognazza (1964-2023)
The Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Library, Newcastle upon Tyne
11 November, 6pm.
Registration information coming soon.
‘Enslaved’ Women and Monstrous Men – Mary Astell, The Mancini Marriage and the case of Katherine Auker.
Astell claims that marriage is a form of slavery for women. But what does she mean by it? Does she regard it as a form of republican slavery, (a thought which is suggested by her using women’s situation to criticize English 17th century republicans). Or does she think that women’s situation is something akin to that of actually enslaved African women (whether in England or in the Colonies).
I will investigate this question by looking at the stories of two contemporaries of Astell. The first is Hortence Mancini, Astell’s neighbour in Chelsea. Mancini’s failed marriage was the pretext for Astell’s 1700 Reflections on Marriage. Hortense Mancini had run away from a husband who was physically as well as psychologically abusive. The second is the case of Katherine Auker, a black woman who was brought to England from Barbados by Robert Rich, a planter. After torturing her, the Riches turned Auker out, specifying that she was not allowed to seek employment anywhere. After nearly starving and being thrown in gaol, Auker petitioned the court and obtained the liberty to work for whom she wished until she had to return to Barbados with the Riches. All this happened near the Tower of London, an hour's carriage ride from Astell’s Chelsea home. But Auker does not feature in Astell’s discussion of women being enslaved - nor do any other actually enslaved women.
My hope in this presentation is that, by contrasting these two cases, I may make some sense of what Astell means when she says that women are ‘in chains’.
2024: Professor Pauline Kleingeld, University of Groningen, "Republican Themes in Kant's Moral Theory". Click here to watch a recording
2023: Professor Peter Adamson, Kings College London / LMU, "Thinking With Rosa: Assent in the Islamic World" Click here to watch a recording
2022: Professor Clare Carlisle, King's College London, “Thought and Feeling: George Eliot and the Expansion of Philosophy” Click here to listen to recording
2021: Professor James A. Harris, “How to write a history of philosophy? The case of 18th-century Britain”, Newnham College, Cambridge.
2020: Prof. Jan Westerhoff, "For your eyes only: the Problem on Solipsism in Ancient Indian Philosophy", delivered online Click here to watch a recording.
2019: Prof. MM McCabe, "Taking time to talk: Plato's Euthydemus on the metaphysics of conversation", University of Aberdeen
2018: Prof. Sarah Hutton, "Women, Philosophy, and the History of Philosophy", Maison Francaise d'Oxford
2017: Prof. John Cottingham, "Why the History of Philosophy Matters", King’s College London
