Mary Shepherd 1777 – 1847
Lady Mary Shepherd was a Scottish philosopher and one of the most acute British metaphysicians of the early nineteenth century. The daughter of an Earl, she received an extensive private education in mathematics, science, and philosophy, and after her marriage and move to London she carried on serious philosophical exchange with figures including William Whewell and Charles Babbage. Her Essay upon the Relation of Cause and Effect and Essays on the Perception of an External Universe defended an a priori principle of causation against Hume's skepticism and a perceptual realism against Berkeleyan idealism. Long neglected, her work has been an important site of the recent recovery of women in early modern philosophy.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Scottish
- Era
- Modern
- Movements
- Empiricism
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Mary Shepherd:
“Every effect must have a cause that determines it.”
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Attributed to Mary Shepherd:
“What begins to be must owe its beginning to some prior power.”
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Attributed to Mary Shepherd:
“Hume's argument denies the very intelligibility of nature.”
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Attributed to Mary Shepherd:
“The mind perceives a real, external world, not a procession of impressions.”
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Attributed to Mary Shepherd:
“Reason gives knowledge of necessary connections that experience alone could not.”