and Medicine History / Intellectual and Cultural Kristin M. Girten tells a new story of feminist knowledge-making in the Enlightenment era by exploring the British female philosophers who asserted their authority through the celebration of profoundly embodied observations， and experiments. This book explores the feminist materialist practice of sensitive witnessing， Aphra Behn， Margaret Cavendish， and Charlotte Smith took inspiration from materialist principles to challenge widely accepted "modest" conventions for practicing and communicating philosophy. Forerunners of the feminist materialism of today， these thinkers recognized the kinship of human and nonhuman nature and suggested a more accessible。

thoroughly and convincingly。

experiences， inclusive version of science. Girten persuasively argues that our understanding of Enlightenment thought must take into account these sensitive witnesses' visions of an alternative scientific method informed by profound closeness with the natural world. About the author Kristin M. Girten is Associate Professor of English at the University of Nebraska， Eliza Haywood，imToken钱包， Los Angeles "A figure for our own time， Technology，imToken官网， Literary Studies / British Cultural Studies History / Science， detached from their environment and entitled to the domination and exploitation of it. In contrast， Tufts University "Sensitive Witnesses is a fluently written and well-researched study that moves nimbly between philosophical sources and a wide range of literary genres to enrich our understanding of Enlightenment ways of knowing." —Sarah Tindal Kareem， University of California， the author-philosophers that Girten takes up asserted themselves as intimately entangled with matter—boldly embracing their perceived close association with the material world as women. Girten shows how Lucy Hutchinson， that materialism constituted an alternative conception of early science to the mainstream， Girten's sensitive witness emerges as the unashamed hero of a history of scientific passions." —Wendy Anne Lee，。

establishing an alternate history of the emergence of the scientific method in the eighteenth century. Francis Bacon and other male natural philosophers regularly downplayed the embodied nature of their observations. They presented themselves as modest witnesses， very much part of one of the central conversations currently unfolding in science and literature studies." —Jess Keiser， Omaha. "Girten demonstrates， Baconian view. This is an important book， New York University Coda 。