A Vindication of the Rights of Woman · Concept
Virtue and Morality
The author contends that true virtue is based on reason and knowledge, not on superficial qualities like beauty or reputation, and that women must be allowed to cultivate virtue through understanding.
The author contends that true virtue is based on reason and knowledge, not on superficial qualities like beauty or reputation, and that women must be allowed to cultivate virtue through understanding.
Argues that true virtue arises from reason and the exercise of passions, not from artificial social conventions.
Wollstonecraft redefines modesty as a virtue stemming from reason and chastity, not social performance.
The chapter explores how true virtue is undermined by a societal obsession with reputation rather than inner moral character.
Wollstonecraft insists that virtue must be nursed by liberty and grounded in reason, and that without it, marriage and sexual attachment become degraded.
Characters
Chapters
- I
- Modesty Comprehensively Considered
- Chapter VIII: Morality Undermined by Sexual Notions of Reputation
- Chapter XIII: Some Instances of the Folly Which the Ignorance of Women Generates; with Concluding Reflections on the Moral Improvement That a Revolution in Female Manners Might Naturally Be Expected to Produce
- Endnotes
