Emancipation and the role of education: what is the political tenor of freedom for Wollstonecraft?

• Grant number: 19/20144-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Effective date (Start): February 06, 2020
• Effective date (End): March 20, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Monique Hulshof
• Grantee: Sarah Bonfim Matos Nunes
• Supervisor: Eileen H. Botting
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Research place: University of Notre Dame, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 19/02493-0 - The Mary Wollstonecraft's education project: the use of reason as emancipator element feminine, BP.MS

Abstract

Rousseau's proposal for girls' education is different from what he thought for boys. For him, girls should be educated to submit to male opinions and social mores. Mary Wollstonecraft, however, did not agree with such an educational project and argued that only reason should drive women. The feminine emancipation proposed by Wollstonecraft goes through a rational development that is established in a freedom based on reason, whose role of education is to provide elements that foster the mental faculties. The objective of this project is to understand the political consequences of this kind of emancipation proposed by Wollstonecraft from her educational works, such as Vindication, Thoughts on Education and Original Stories, in order to understand the political-philosophical content of its educational project and the consequent freedom it inspires. (AU)