Study
Study at UCL
Being a student at UCL is about so much more than just acquiring knowledge. Studying here gives you the opportunity to realise your potential as an individual, and the skills and tools to thrive.
Research
Research at UCL
Find out more about what makes UCL research world-leading, how to access UCL expertise, and teams in the Office of the Vice-Provost (Research, Innovation and Global Engagement).
Engage
Engage with UCL
Discover the many ways you can connect with UCL, and how we work with industry, government and not-for-profit organisations to tackle tough challenges.
About
About UCL
Founded in 1826 in the heart of London, UCL is London's leading multidisciplinary university, with more than 16,000 staff and 50,000 students from 150 different countries.

Chamberlain: The Duchess of Disunity: Margaret Cavendish on the Materiality of Mind

Colin Chamberlain: The Duchess of Disunity: Margaret Cavendish on the Materiality of Mind (2024), Philosophers' Imprint

Sometimes we love and hate the same thing at the same time. Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673) appeals to this type of passionate conflict to argue that the mind is a material thing. When our passions conflict, the mind or reason conflicts with itself. From this, Cavendish infers that the mind has parts and, therefore, is material. Cavendish says that this argument is among the best proofs of the mind’s materiality. And yet, the existing scholarship on Cavendish lacks the kind of detailed reconstruction required to evaluate the merits of this argument. In this paper, I provide just such a reconstruction. I also show that Cavendish’s argument is an effective intervention in her dispute with René Descartes and Henry More about the materiality of the mind.