ELEMENTS OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIND
First printing of this groundbreaking treatise on female psychology by a pioneer in women's education.
Very good plus.
Price: $3,500.00
ELEMENTS OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIND
"Let woman be true to her rational nature and her moral feeling, then will her associations of thought be correct...[she will] assert her own right to stand independent of fashion, or rather by the cultivation of her well balanced mind, be herself its lawgiver."
Ricord's comprehensive textbook on "Mental or Intellectual Philosophy," adapted from a series of lectures presented to the author's seminary pupils and designed expressly for the instruction of women students, was the first US textbook to present all facets of the subject with a female readership in mind, and was "the first book-length work to expressly address gender" (de Waal and Shook, 815).
Elizabeth Stryker Ricord founded the Geneva Female Seminary in 1829, establishing a system of higher education for women both broader and deeper than most sex-segregated institutions offered or allowed: Latin, Greek, chemistry, astronomy, and geometry were taught, as well as philosophy. In her introduction, Ricord speaks directly to the strictures commonly imposed on women's mental lives: "It is a lamentable fact, that in the education of our sex, the showy, even in intellectual acquirements, is more sought after, than the solid. We are not so much taught to look in upon ourselves, as out upon others; into the immaterial world, as upon the material world." Nearly two centuries before "empowerment" grew to be a feminist rallying cry and popular slogan, Ricord's great purpose was to lead her pupils "to an acquaintance with the powers of your own mind, and be the step in that most important part of your education, Self-Knowledge."
Read more: de Waal, Cornelis and John R. Shook, "Ricord, Elizabeth Stryker," The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Philosophers in America.
The Object
First edition. Geneva, NY: John N. Bogert, (1840). Full title: Elements of the Philosophy of the Mind: Applied to the Developement [sic] of Thought and Feeling. 7.5'' x 4.75''. Original blind-stamped brown cloth with gilt-lettered spine. Errata slip inserted following page 408. vii, 408 pages. Woman's ink owner inscription, dated 1842, on front free endpaper. Light to moderate foxing throughout. Light bumping to corners; minor scuffing to extremities.
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