Editing Frances Power Cobbe (section)

==Thought and ideas==

[[File:Portrait of Frances Power Cobbe (4672817) (cropped).jpg|thumb]]

In Cobbe's first book ''An Essay on Intuitive Morals'', vol. 1, she combined Kantian ethics, theism, and intuitionism. She had encountered Kant in the early 1850s. She argued that the key concept in ethics is duty, that duties presuppose a moral law, and a moral law presupposes an absolute moral legislator - God.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://historyofwomenphilosophers.org/ecc/#hwps|title=Encyclopedia of Concise Concepts by Women Philosophers - History Of Women Philosophers|website=historyofwomenphilosophers.org}}</ref> She argued that we know by intuition what the law requires us to do. We can trust our intuition because it is "God's tuition".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/anessayonintuit01cobbgoog/page/n54/mode/2up?q=tuition|title=Cobbe, Essay on Intuitive Morals}}</ref> We can do what the law requires because we have noumenal selves as well as being in the world of phenomena. She rejected [[eudaimonism]] and [[utilitarianism]].

Cobbe applied her moral theory to animal rights, first in ''The Rights of Man and the Claims of Brutes'' from 1863. She argued that humans may do harm to animals in order to satisfy real wants but not from mere "wantonness".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/studiesnewandol01cobbgoog/page/n240/mode/2up?q=wantonness|title=Cobbe, Studies New and Old of Ethical and Social Subjects}}</ref> For example, humans may eat meat but not kill birds for feathers to decorate hats. The harm or pain inflicted must be the minimum possible. For Cobbe this set limits to vivisection, for example, it must always be done under anaesthetia.

Cobbe engaged with Darwinism. She had met the Darwin family in 1868. [[Emma Darwin]] liked her, saying "Miss Cobbe was very agreeable." Cobbe persuaded [[Charles Darwin]] to read [[Immanuel Kant]]'s ''Metaphysics of Morals''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Browne, Janet|title=Charles Darwin: The Power of Place|year=2002|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|pages=[https://archive.org/details/charlesdarwin00jane/page/296 296–297]|isbn=978-0-679-42932-6|url=https://archive.org/details/charlesdarwin00jane/page/296}}</ref> Darwin had a review copy of ''[[The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex|Descent of Man]]'' sent to her (as well as to [[Alfred Russel Wallace]] and [[St. George Jackson Mivart]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/search?keyword=frances+power+cobbe&tab=|title=Darwin Correspondence Project}}</ref> This led to her critique of Darwin, ''Darwinism in Morals'', in ''[[The Theological Review]]'' in April 1871. Cobbe thought morality could not be explained by evolution and needed reference to God. Darwin could show why we do feel sympathy for others, but not why we ought to feel it.<ref>{{citation |last=Cobbe | first=Frances Power|title=Darwinism in Morals|journal=The Theological Review |volume=8|publisher=Williams & Norgate |date=April 1871|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iTM2AAAAMAAJ|pages=167–192}}</ref><ref name="archive">{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/darwinisminmoral00cobbuoft|title=Darwinism in morals : and other essays. Reprinted from the Theological and Fortnightly reviews, Fraser's and Macmillan's magazines, and the Manchester friend : Cobbe, Frances Power, 1822-1904 : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive|year=1872|access-date=10 December 2016}}</ref> 

However, the debate with Darwin led Cobbe to revise her views about duties to animals. She started to think that sympathy was central and we must above all treat animals in ways that show sympathy for them.<ref>{{citation |last=Stone|first=Alison|title=Frances Power Cobbe|year=2022|publisher=Cambridge University Press|pages=52–53}}</ref> Vivisection violated this. She also introduced a distinction between sympathy and what she called heteropathy, similar to hostility or cruelty. She thought we naturally have cruel instincts that found an outlet in vivisection. Religion in contrast cultivated sympathy, but science was undermining it. This became part of a wide-ranging account of the direction of European civilisation.<ref>{{citation|last=Stone|first=Alison|title=Frances Power Cobbe and the Philosophy of Anti-Vivisection|journal=Journal of Animal Ethics|year=2023|volume=13 |issue=13|pages=21–30|doi=10.5406/21601267.13.1.04 |url=https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/192204/3/vivisection_copy.pdf }}</ref>

These were just some of the huge range of philosophical topics on which Cobbe wrote. They included aesthetics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of religion, history, pessimism, life after death, and many more.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://projectvox.org/revealing-voices/revealing-voices-alison-stone/|title=Revealing Voices: Alison Stone|first=Project Vox|last=Team|date=15 June 2021|website=Project Vox}}</ref> Her books included ''The Pursuits of Women'' (1863), ''Essays New and Old on Ethical and Social Subjects'' (1865), ''Darwinism in Morals, and other Essays'' (1872), ''The Hopes of the Human Race'' (1874), ''The Duties of Women'' (1881), ''The Peak in Darien, with some other Inquiries touching concerns of the Soul and the Body'' (1882), ''The Scientific Spirit of the Age'' (1888) and ''The Modern Rack: Papers on Vivisection'' (1889), as well as her autobiography.