Memoirs of Modern Philosophers

Memoirs of Modern Philosophers is a novel by British author Elizabeth Hamilton published in 1800. Responding to the Revolution Controversy of the 1790s and the debates about what roles women should occupy in English society, the novel contends that a poor education limits women's opportunities while at the same time arguing they should limit their activities to the domestic sphere. It occupies a middle ground between the liberal arguments of novelists such as Mary Hays and the conservative arguments by writers such as Hannah More.

Modern Philosophers was part of the Revolution Controversy of the 1790s, when Britons were debating “revolutionary ideas about a broader franchise, primogeniture, meritocracy, marriage and divorce”. The disenfranchised middle-class and other English Jacobins (so-called by their detractors) wanted “to force a redistribution of power and status” while the Loyalists, who had power, wanted to retain the status quo. The key texts of this debate were Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man (1791), Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), and William Godwin’s Political Justice (1793) and The Enquirer (1797). Hamilton assumes her readers know these works well; she makes many allusions and satirical references to them.

Women participated in this debate by writing poems, conduct books, novels, children’s literature, and plays that addressed women’s issues specifically, namely the need for a good education, legal status, and the ability to be economically independent. Thus, the reading material of women became a political topic. Novels such as Modern Philosophers played a large role in this debate, since they were widely read and easily available. Discussion about women’s rights took place in novels because the genre itself was perceived as feminine and it was the most accessible kind of literature to women. Women were supposedly more receptive to fiction than men because of the small purview of their lives. Loyalists such as Hannah More argued that this was because “there is a different bent of understanding in the sexes” while Jacobins such as Wollstonecraft argued that “there is no sex in the soul or mind” and women were only limited by their inadequate educations. Hamilton herself occupied a middle ground, arguing that women were capable of achieving more than they currently did but that their poor education held them back. Unlike the English Jacobins, however, she believed that women should only participate in the domestic sphere. Hamilton’s novel argues for moderate reform, reform based on middle-class morality and Christianity.

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