Freedom and Necessity in the Work of Margaret Cavendish

This chapter argues that Margaret Cavendish is a libertarian with respect to the freedom of natural individuals. It takes account of the passages within Cavendish’s corpus that seem to imply she is a determinist and compatibilist, by examining debates about freedom and determinism current in her time, and by tracing the development of Cavendish’s views on this topic. This chapter also grapples with the claim that Cavendish lauded libertarian freedom in the political realm, which causes significant difficulties for the idea that she is a Royalist, ultimately rejecting this interpretation by focusing on Cavendish’s interests in the human’s inappropriate drive for fame.