Margaret Cavendish
Subtitle: Political Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)
Contributors: Susan James (Editor)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: November 10, 2003
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 344
ISBN-13: 9780521633499
Subjects: British & Irish history: c 1500 to c 1700; History of ideas, intellectual history; Literary studies: general; POLITICS & GOVERNMENT; Social & political philosophy; Women's studies; Utopias; Politics / Current Events; General; Sociology; United Kingdom, Great Britain; Politics and government; Europe - Great Britain - General; Reference; Political Science / Reference; Voyages, Imaginary; Early works to 1800; Great Britain; Political Science; Social conditions
First sentence: If you wonder, that I join a work of fancy to my serious philosophical contemplations; think not that it is out of a disparagement to philosophy; or out of an opinion, as if this noble study were but a fiction of the mind; for though philosophers may err in searching and enquiring after the causes of natural effects, and many times embrace falsehoods for truths; yet this doth not prove, that the ground of philosophy is merely fiction, but the error proceeds from the different motions of reason, which cause different opinions in different parts, and in some are more irregular than in others; for reason being dividable, because material, cannot move in all parts alike; and since there is but one truth in nature, all those that hit not this truth, do err, some more, some less; for though some may come nearer the mark than others, which makes their opinions seem more probable and rational than others, yet as long as they swerve from this only truth, they are in the wrong: nevertheless, all do ground their opinions upon