And, when we read that last question are we tempted to say "is she just someone who ...."
I think Austen definitely does have a philosophical position and that it is a carefully worked out position and I think this can be pretty much proven by a close look at the way Edward Ferrars responds to Marianne's defense of the picturesque in Sense and Sensibility.
But long before we get there we get statements like this:
She never could learn or understand anything before she was taught; and some times not even then, for she was often inattentive, and sometimes stupid.I've highlighted this one before to show that Catherine Morland is the founding example of a now common type in literature. But there may also be something else here. Is Austen taking a stand on a priori knowledge, namely that it does not exist, here?
