The Philomathian Society and political debate in late Eighteenth Century England

Abstract

The present article deals with several vicissitudes of British intellectual life in the late Eighteenth Century. This time, of great political upheaval, saw the creation of many societies, pleading for important reforms such as the ones implemented in France after the Revolution. The paper reveals different aspects of the political and social life of such notable characters as Sheridan, Fox, Godwin, Burke, Priestley, Wollstonecraft or Alexander Jardine himself, whose relationship with them is used as the linking nexus of the whole paper. These political reforms needed to be accompanied by some social changes such as a new and more active role for women, and their right for independence, education and the vote.