Mary Wollstonecraft’s Enlightened Legacy: The “Modern Social Imaginary” of the Egalitarian Family

Charles Taylor recently used the term modern social imaginary to describe dominant sets of norms, practices, and expectations—such as the market economy or the public sphere—that are rooted in the philosophies of the European Enlightenment and have since permeated the common experience of life in th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American behavioral scientist (Beverly Hills) 2006-01, Vol.49 (5), p.687-701
Main Author: Botting, Eileen Hunt
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
18th century
Age of Enlightenment
Cultural studies
Egalitarianism
Enlightenment
Expectations
Families & family life
Family Life
Family studies
Graphs
History of philosophy
Human behaviour
Market economies
Modern Society
Modernism
Norms
Nuclear family
Patriarchy
Philosophers
Political activism
Public sphere
Social relations
Social research
Studies
Taylor, Charles
Taylor, Charles (philosopher)
Traditions
Western civilization
Wollstonecraft, Mary
Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797)
Womens rights
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Summary:Charles Taylor recently used the term modern social imaginary to describe dominant sets of norms, practices, and expectations—such as the market economy or the public sphere—that are rooted in the philosophies of the European Enlightenment and have since permeated the common experience of life in the contemporary Western world. Building on Taylor’s argument, this article charts how Mary Wollstonecraft became one of the major philosophical sources from the Enlightenment era to shape the emergent modern social imaginary of the egalitarian family that increasingly serves as the background against which debates about the family take place today.
ISSN:0002-7642
1552-3381
DOI:10.1177/0002764205282213