from Hypatia Volume 20, Number 1

Excerpt from

Moral Theory in the Fiction of Isabelle de Charrière: The Case of Three Women

Emma Rooksby

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Not all those who write philosophy are recognized as philosophers. In this paper I argue that Dutch writer Isabelle de Charrière, usually known as a novelist, is actually engaged in doing moral philosophy. In the second half of the eighteenth century, Charrière wrote novels about characters who endorsed moral theories and commitments. Her novels track the dilemmas that these characters face in trying to live according their moral theories and commitments. I consider the case for treating fiction as philosophically valuable, and argue that Charrière's novels fall into the category of philosophically valuable fiction.

This article considers the philosophical interest of the fiction of Isabelle de Charrière, today known primarily as a novelist. The well-educated daughter of minor Dutch nobility, Charrière (1740-1806) lived first in the Netherlands and then in Switzerland. She read widely, mingled with philosophers, novelists, and other intellectuals, and published several novels, as well as many short stories. Some of her fiction, principally the novella Three Women,1 explores themes from contemporary moral and political philosophy, although this aspect of her fiction is not yet widely recognized.2

Charrière did not write philosophical treatises; but she did write fiction that engaged with the philosophical, and specifically the moral, topics of her time, including particular theories in moral and political philosophy. Works that cover such ground are Les lettres de Mistriss Henley (Charrière 1980a), Honorine d'Userche (Charrière 1981a), and Sir Walter Finch et son fils William (Charrière 1981b). Charrière's fiction explores a range of themes in this area, including the difficulties that individuals face in following moral theories, weaknesses in the moral theories themselves, and individuals' tendency to apply moral theories in distorted ways that serve either their own interests or those of social groups to which they belong. Charrière's attention to the complexity of character and motivation, and to the contributions of class and gender to individuals' choice of moral theory, provides genuine insight into the epistemic and motivational difficulties individuals face in trying to follow moral theories.

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