Political scientist Botting publishes new book on family transformation | News | Notre Dame News | University of Notre Dame Skip To Content Skip To Navigation Skip To Search University of Notre Dame Notre Dame News Experts ND in the News Subscribe About Us Home Contact Search Menu Home › News › Political scientist Botting publishes new book on family transformation Political scientist Botting publishes new book on family transformation Published: March 05, 2006 Author: Michael O. Garvey Eighteenth century theological and philosophical discourses on the family have profound implications for 21 st century controversies, according to Eileen Hunt Botting, Thomas J. and Robert T. Rolfs Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. Botting is the author ofFamily Feuds:Wollstonecraft, Burke, and Rousseau on the Transformation of the Family,which is being published this month by State University of New York Press.A comparative study of the role of the family in the work and writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Edmund Burke and Mary Wollstonecraft, the book argues that Wollstonecraftsegalitarianvision of the family has profoundly affectedthe ongoing egalitarian transformation of the family in Western modernity. Wollstonecrafts vision, a challenge to thepatriarchalunderstanding of the family that was dominant in her time,has increasingly become embodied and enmeshed in the norms, practices and institutions of Western culture and politics,Botting said. For Wollstonecraft, Botting said, a desirable family was onein which the equality of the sexes was respected in human behavior and institutionalized in law; marriage was understood as a friendship between rational and affectionate equals; the moral duty of parenting was seen as a human, not a primarily female, duty; and the hierarchy between parents and children was recognized as legitimate only insofar as it was temporary and benevolent. Botting contends that Wollstonecrafts understanding of the family has roots not only in Enlightenment philosophy, but in Christian theology as well, and that itteaches us that the conflicts we perceive today between values such as religious faith and intellectual freedom may be more apparent than real.As a Christian Enlightenment feminist who critically yet productively engaged the leading defenders of patriarchal social and political institutions in her time, Wollstonecraft is a testament to how robust and challenging intellectual debate and argument about matters dear to our hearts—such as love, marriage, sexuality and family life—can generate creative ideas and practices that will ultimately transform human social and political life for the better. Botting has been a member of the Notre Dame faculty since 2001.Her next book is entitledMary Wollstonecraft and the Making of Modern Feminisms. * Contact: * _Eileen Hunt Botting at 574-631-5051 or ehunt@nd.edu _ TopicID: 16164 Home Experts ND in the News Subscribe About Us For the Media Contact Office of Public Affairs and Communications Notre Dame News 500 Grace Hall Notre Dame, IN 46556 USA Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Pinterest © 2022 University of Notre Dame Search Mobile App News Events Visit Accessibility Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube LinkedIn