Very little is know about the life and work of Lady Mary Shepherd (1777-1847), and yet she is undoubtedly one of the most important women philosophers of the early modern period. Whewell is reputed to have used one of her books at a text at Cambridge, and Sir Charles Lyell said of her that she was an "unanswerable logician, in whose argument it was impossible to find a loophole of flaw". Exceptionally well read and analytically clear, she made a significant scholarly contribution to the philosophcial disucssion and debated surrounding the work of Hume, Berkeley and others. This, the first modern edition of Shephers's writings, include her two major philosophical works: "An Essay upon the Relation of Cause and Effect" (1824), a critique of Hume's view of causality, and "Essays on the Perception of an External Universe and Other Subjects" (1827), a refutation of Berkeley's idealism. Also included is her first, anonymous, publication, "Enquiry respecting the Relation of Cause and Effect" (1819) and two shorter pieces. There is a growing interest in the contribution of women writers to the history of philosophy.
However, limited access to original texts has prevented a serious and systematic examination of their doctrines. Shepherd's philosophical works deserve the careful consideration of contemporary historians and philosophers, but until now have been largely unavailable to the modern reader.
- ISBN10 1855068672
- ISBN13 9781855068674
- Publish Date 15 October 2000
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 22 July 2016
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Imprint Thoemmes Continuum
- Edition Facsimile edition
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 770
- Language English