Celestial Bodies, Earthly Mixtures. Women, Sociability and Philosophy in David Hume

Abstract

Along the work of David Hume, women are presented in ways which are very different, and sometimes difficult to reconcile. In some passages, the so-called fair sex is shows as inconstant and prone to intense passions. In others, it seems women have undeniable advantages when it comes to questions concerning taste, which would imply they are more sensible then men. In this paper, we shall contend, from some of the Essays, but also using some passages from A Treatise of Human Nature and An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals, that Hume intends, even on the texts in which women are presented as being in an inferior situation, to defend that a proper education would turn them in the best model not only when it comes to sociability, but also concerning philosophy and the belles lettres.