Sunday, September 14, 2008

Question 1:

1) Mary Wollstonecraft believes in the perfection of God, and that when He created the world, he did so in complete perfection knowing that his creation would continue to reap perfection, rather than evil and destruction in the world. In other words, Wollstonecraft does not believe that the creation of man and woman was an act of evil and corruption entering a perfect world, but rather God-in His ultimate knowledge and perfection-put mankind on Earth for a reason to bring about change and achieve Reason. Rousseau, on the other hand, was affected with the sense that in the beginning perfection was created, yet the moment mankind entered the world, it became corrupt. Because of this stance, Rousseau implores that the state of solitude in nature is preferable to a society or civilization, because with society comes interaction with people, thus comes corruption.
Mary Wollstonecraft argues aggressively against this particular view. She insists that God in his perfection yielded a way for "evil" humans to work together to create a better and more perfect world once they achieve Reason. In a way, Wollstonecraft contains hints of Calvinism in her doctrine. She sees everything as already determined and predestined, therefore there is no question that God willed man be put on this earth and would produce a future good even in his "evil." She does not argue for human perfection, but rather for ultimate perfection (or so it seems...)
This comes into play with her stance on women's rights by a quote on page 377 "Roussea exterts himself to prove that all was right originally:...and I that all will be right." Here, Wollstonecraft makes the stance that man and woman were created equally and each given a specific purpose on this earth to a greater good. If man and woman only represented evil and corruption, then God would cringe at their works and efforts, rather than delight in them. If this were true, then women ultimately would have no need to further themselves or overcome the hardships of the time to let their own beliefs, wisdome and virtue be known above men. However, Wollstonecraft believes that because God ordained all along the role mankind would play, He never discounted women, but rather would delight in their efforts to work for a greater good, just like men.

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