Petticoat Power? Mary Astell's Appropriation of Heroic Virtue for Women

Abstract Several recent studies devote themselves to Mary Astell's feminist theory of virtue—her ‘serious proposal the ladies’ help women obtain wisdom, equality, and happiness, despite prejudices seventeenth-century custom. But there has been little scholarship on conception heroic virtues , those exceptional character traits that raise their bearers above ordinary course nature. appropriation virtue poses a number philosophical difficulties for her ethics—heroic are characteristically masculine, exceptional, individualistic, ill-suited community-oriented feminism aimed at women. In this paper, we seek investigate—and then dispel—these key difficulties. Our intention is generate new understanding as unique sophisticated equalizes naturalizes