MIND
A celebration of thought, clarity, and curiosity—where ideas spark, patterns reveal themselves, and understanding grows through exploration and insight.
MIND
Mary Astell, “A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, for the Advancement of Their True and Greatest Interest (In Two Parts).”
53-63
For since GOD has given Women 53as well as Men intelligent Souls, why should they be forbidden to improve them? Since he has not denied us the faculty of Thinking, why shou’d we not (at least in gratitude to him) employ our
... See moreMary Astell argues that women, possessing rational and immortal souls equal to men’s, have a moral and spiritual right to education. Denying women intellectual cultivation, she insists, weakens their judgment, distorts their will, and leaves them vulnerable to folly, manipulation, and shallow pursuits. Astell distinguishes true learning from trivial knowledge, warning that idle entertainment and fashionable reading fill the mind without forming wisdom.
She proposes that women be allowed serious study, especially philosophy and theology, not to claim public authority but to understand their faith, govern their lives wisely, and prepare their souls for heaven. Education, for Astell, refines character, deepens piety, and enables women to live purposefully, serve others charitably, and use time well. True religion and learning, she concludes, do not diminish joy but elevate it, aligning reason, devotion, and happiness into a disciplined yet life-giving whole.
STRATEGIC / ANALYTIC / METHODICAL KNOWING
“If yes, alright—what are the actions I need to take to get there? I make a plan… they talk about: you make a plan and you work the plan.”
“I’m very methodical about things and I come up with steps… if plan A doesn’t work, what’s plan A.1?”
... See more“I see it as a series of steps. If we get to step four and that’s
“When you know, then it actually is true. And you have no way of denying it because everything fits to that.”