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I was referring to the letter from Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia to Descartes saying she was too busy with courtly life to follow his instructions. Then: rare
by Ericson2314 6y ago
I was referring to the letter from Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia to Descartes saying she was too busy with courtly life to follow his instructions.
Then: rare bath, lots of combing done by servants
Now: common shower, ideal alone time.
If you were a noble/royal woman, I think it's fair to say you'd have more time to think now than then.
(And exercise, the other thing that's nicer for thinking behind doing nothing besides warm water, was also not really a thing for women then.)
- mtgp1000 6y ago> saying she was too busy with courtly life to follow his instructions That's because his instructions were totally extreme even by today's standards. This says nothing about averages and ultimately as a noble she simply did not want to. >And exercise, the other thing that's nicer for thinking behind doing nothing besides warm water, was also not really a thing for women then Are you implying that women just sat around not thinking all the time? Because I am too, but for different reasons, and not just men. The vast majority of people are not interested in thinking beyond the bare minimum. Otherwise we'd have more than a tiny fraction of the population purposefully self learning.
- Ericson2314 6y agoI'm claiming that early modern Europe, and courtly life in particular, did not give upper-class women a lot of alone time. I am trying to find the book I once had a college class to cite, but I am having trouble finding it.