Catharine Trotter Cockburn (1679?–1749)

This chapter contains selected letters from the correspondence of Catharine Trotter Cockburn, an English moral philosopher of Scottish descent. It includes a large selection of Cockburn’s letters to and from her niece Ann Hepburn Arbuthnot, spanning the period from 1731 to 1748, as well as letters from Cockburn’s exchanges with the philosophers John Locke and Edmund Law. The topics of the letters concern ethical and moral-theological issues such as the metaphysical foundations of moral obligation and the role of reason in discerning the will of God. The chapter begins with an introductory essay by the editor, arguing that the letters provide insight into how Cockburn developed her mature ethical position in relation to her philosophical contemporaries, especially the freethinkers, deists, mystics, and advocates of self-interest in her time. The text includes editorial annotations to assist the reader’s understanding of early modern words and ideas.