ABSTRACT
Characterizing an eighteenth-century progressive thinker who defended the French Revolution on the basis of the principles on which it was fought as a republican makes good sense. Eighteenth-century republicanism is characterized by its emphasis on the capacity and necessity of representative forms of government for the liberty of persons within the state. The commitment to a republican constitution follows logically from the conception of freedom, since an absolute ruler who is beyond popular control and the laws represents just such an arbitrary power that violates the personal freedom of the subjects. By the eighteenth century the martial aspects of patriotism and the glorification of war and conquest had faded and were not really a significant philosophical element in the English republicanism within which Wollstonecraft moved. The feminist promise of republican citizenship is one upon which Wollstonecraft insists. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.
