A Passionate Defence of Reason: Necessity and Sensibility in Mary Wollstonecraft's Moral Philosophy

Eighteenth-century British literature, science, and philosophy largely dealt with the issue of thinking with feeling. The model of a ‘man of feeling’ was notably popularised by Richardson and Sterne, while Samuel Johnson gave an influential definition of sensibility referring to medical investigations on the nervous system. On the other hand, the ‘age of sensibility’ received bitter criticism from Mary Wollstonecraft, who argued that sensibility is a dangerous behaviour to which women are compelled by prejudices and misleading views. While she often identified sensibility with coquettish and superficial social relationships, Wollstonecraft praised Scottish moralists, such as David Hume and Adam Smith, sharing the role played by moral sentiments in sound moral thinking. This paper aims at examining Wollstonecraft’s complex position, stressing on the refusal of the literary image of the woman ‘of sharp sensibility and delicate temper’ and focusing on the influence of the Scottish moral sense moralists on her account of human virtue.