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Judith Sargent Murray (1751–1820)

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The Neglected Canon: Nine Women Philosophers

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Abstract

A large mural depicting Judith Sargent Murray, pen in hand at the center of activity in a world past and present, is now newly displayed in the center of Gloucester, Massachusetts, her birthplace. Pen in hand is an apt depiction. Murray, spent a lifetime with a pen articulating her ideas on intellectual and moral virtue, the political philosophy of revolutionary America, man’s relation to God and the universe, and women’s equality. Her ideas did not find their way into the philosophical canon. In her own lifetime she was praised for her Universalist ideas, in the nineteenth century as poet, in the twentieth century as an historical figure of stature, but not yet as philosopher.1

Heaven descended goddess, rational and refined

(Gl,1, 260)

Happy talents, Constantia, are confessedly thine! Columbia’s sons and daughters shall never cease to bless thee!

Henry Sherbum The Oriental Philanthropist 1800

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Judith Sargent Murray Bibliography

Original Sources

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Philosophy Dept., Fairfield University, Fairfield, USA

    Therese Boos Dykeman

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  1. Philosophy Dept., Fairfield University, Fairfield, USA

    Therese Boos Dykeman

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Dykeman, T.B. (1999). Judith Sargent Murray (1751–1820). In: Dykeman, T.B. (eds) The Neglected Canon: Nine Women Philosophers. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3400-4_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3400-4_7

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