Cavendish on Witchcraft (Season 14.6)

Below is the script for the Halloween special on Margaret Cavendish's writings, published as episode 5 of Season 14 for my Philosophy Fluency podcast. 

You can listen to this episode here.

🎧 

Hello and welcome to Philosophy Fluency's Halloween themed episode 6 of Season 14. Did you all hear the storm in London, UK this evening, on Halloween?! That wasn't forecast but if you are the superstitious type, it was so bad, you'd think the witches were out in force for Halloween! 

So to comfort ourselves on this cold, wet, windy, thunderstorm night let's all enjoy some pumpkin spiced coffees with chocolate covered slimy witch marshmallows on top. 

I've prepared about 4 versions of this episode, but at the last minute I've decided to go with the Halloween theme by saying a few words about the relevance of witchcraft and superstition to Margaret Cavendish's philosophy. It's not some wacky topic I've just thought up. It's a thing. You can read more about it in scholarship, such as Jacqueline Broad's 2007 paper: 'Margaret Cavendish and Joseph Glanvill: science, religion, and witchcraft' published in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A; and Stewart Duncan's 'Cavendish on the Supernatural' written for the Oxford Handbook of Margaret Cavendish. 

There's also some interesting general knowledge articles freely available on the internet that explain the historical context of the persecution and suffering of ordinary women falsely accused of witchcraft. I'll share some of these sources on the Philosophy Fluency Facebook page for ease of reference. 

Margaret Cavendish mainly analyses the topic of witchcraft in her work: Philosophical Letters, in which she details her natural philosophy. Cavendish was ahead of time in arguing that witches were not some bizarre, dangerous, supernatural women and she's absolutely right. Witches were just innocent women falsely accused and persecuted by religious people and the patriarchy. 

In England this persecution was at its height during Cavendish's lifetime, especially during the puritanical era. 

Cavendish wrote how normal women were even put to death, simply due to the false accusation of witchcraft. As a scientist and materialist, Cavendish thought witchcraft was merely the product of people's superstitious tendencies. It's important to remember that she doesn't believe in immaterial things, hence she even argues for a material, natural soul, as opposed to a supernatural, divine soul. Cavendish's explanation for the fear and superstition surrounding so-called witchcraft was that it arises whenever there's a failure in understanding a cause. So ignorance about causation generates superstitious, false beliefs. 

To give you a flavour of the original wording and arguments in Cavendish's Philosophical Letters, I'll read the opening section of Letter XVI: 

 "MADAM,

MY opinion of Witches and Witchcraft, (of whose Power and strange effects your Author is pleased to relate many stories) in brief, is this; My Sense and Reason doth inform me, that there is Natural Witchcraft, as I may call it, which is Sym∣pathy, Antipathy, Magnetisme, and the like, which are made by the sensitive and rational motions between several Creatures, as by Imagination, Fancy, Love, Aversion, and many the like; but these Motions, be∣ing sometimes unusual and strange to us, we not know∣ing their causes, (For what Creature knows all moti∣ons in Nature, and their ways.) do stand amazed at their working power; and by reason we cannot assign any Natural cause for them, are apt to ascribe their effects to the Devil; but that there should be any such devillish Witchcraft, which is made by a Covenant and Agreement with the Devil, by whose power Men do enchaunt or bewitch other Creatures, I cannot readily believe. Certainly, I dare say, that many a good, old honest woman hath been condemned innocently, and suffered death wrongfully, by the sentence of some foolish and cruel Judges, meerly upon this suspition of Witchcraft, when as really there hath been no such thing; for many things are done by slights or juggling Arts, wherein neither the Devil nor Witches are Actors."¹

So, as we see here, Cavendish, like Spinoza, is against superstitious mental habits and patterns of thinking as a lazy, unscientific way of filling in gaps in our knowledge. I've only begun researching this aspect of Cavendish's philosophy so I'll expand on this at a later date. Do join me next time for more Philosophy Fluency. Have a fun Halloween and weekend. 

Cavendish, Margaret 'Philosophical letters, or, Modest reflections upon some opinions in natural philosophy maintained by several famous and learned authors of this age, expressed by way of letters / by the thrice noble, illustrious, and excellent princess the Lady Marchioness of Newcastle.' 1664, 

published in London, available at:

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A53058.0001.001/1:6.3.16?rgn=div3&view=fulltext