What is it about?
This chapter is about eighteenth-century writer Mary Chudleigh's engagement with ancient Stoic ethical ideas. It argues that her writings are unique in their time for providing women with Stoic advice on how to cope with their everyday lives as wives, mothers, and caregivers.
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Why is it important?
There's a common assumption that, historically speaking, Stoic philosophy has been a philosophy of men's ideas, and that Stoicism is a stereotypically "manly" way of living. Mary Chudleigh's writings reveal how one woman embraced Stoic ideas and developed a conception of Stoic sagehood that was amenable to women in her time. The chapter is significant for examining a Stoic therapy designed *by* a woman *for* women. It also offers one of the first detailed analyses of the English writer Mary Chudleigh (1656-1710) as a philosopher rather than a poet or essayist.
Perspectives
I hope this article helps readers to see there is value in Stoic thought for women, even today.
Jacqueline Broad
Monash University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Mary Chudleigh, Stoicism, and Female Sagehood, October 2025, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004703155_009.
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