Browse Items (8 total)

Thomas Hobbes's works, particularly Leviathan, influenced members of the Libertine circles in England, among them the Earl of Rochester and Aphra Behn. In this excerpt from Leviathan, Hobbes presents arguments about the causes of absurdity and…

In this quote, Aphra Behn extolls the innate ability and cognition of the native population of Suriname.

An excerpt from Oronooko on the "simplicity" and impressionability of the natives.

An annotated version of paragraph 2 of Haywood'sFantomina. These annotations pay special attention to the perception of women in the 18th century within the context of writings by philosophers such as David Hume and John Locke.

Our mind and its thoughts are one of the most important things to us

In this excerpt, Smith attempts to convey what it means to be sympathetic or empathetic with someone in simple words. He claims that witnessing "pain or sorrow" induces equivalent feelings, or the closest representation possible, in the witness.

In this excerpt, the article emphasizes the fact that we read novels because they enable us to be introspective and offer a basis for comparison against our real lives. This is a similar idea to Metcalf's theory that people in the middle class read…