ABSTRACT

Elizabeth Hamilton (1758–1816) has not so far been considered a philosopher, probably because she wrote novels and tracts on education rather than philosophical treatises. This paper argues that Hamilton’s novel Memoirs of Modern Philosophers (1800) should be read as a philosophical text, both for its close engagement with William Godwin’s moral theory and for what it suggests about Hamilton’s own moral theory and moral psychology. Studies of Memoirs have so far either characterized it as merely satire of Godwin, or, if they have read it as containing arguments against Godwin’s views, have described those arguments in very broad strokes, without looking closely at the text to see if the descriptions are warranted. A careful examination of Memoirs shows that Hamilton objected primarily to one key aspect of Godwin’s moral theory, namely, his insistence that actions affecting others must be based on an impartial, disinterested assessment of a person’s contribution to general utility rather than on their particular relationship to the agent. Memoirs also points towards Hamilton’s own moral theory, as exemplified in her Series of Popular Essays (1813), with its emphasis on ‘benevolent affections’ that are directed towards family members and people in the agent’s social circle.

摘要

伊丽莎白·汉密尔顿（Elizabeth Hamilton，1758-1816 年）迄今为止还没有被认为是哲学家，可能是因为她写的是关于教育的小说和小册子，而不是哲学论文。本文认为汉密尔顿的小说《现代哲学家回忆录》（1800 年）应该被当作哲学文本来阅读，因为它与威廉·戈德温的道德理论密切相关，也因为它对汉密尔顿自己的道德理论和道德心理学提出了建议。迄今为止，回忆录研究要么将其描述为仅仅是对戈德温的讽刺，要么，如果他们将其解读为包含反对戈德温观点的论点，则以非常广泛的笔触描述这些论点，而没有仔细查看文本以查看这些描述是否正确保证。仔细检查回忆录表明汉密尔顿主要反对戈德温道德理论的一个关键方面，即他坚持认为影响他人的行为必须基于对一个人对一般效用的贡献的公正、无私的评估，而不是基于他们与代理人的特定关系。《回忆录》还指出了汉密尔顿自己的道德理论，如她的《通俗散文系列》（1813 年）所体现的那样，它强调针对家庭成员和代理人社交圈中的人的“仁慈的感情”。