The Platonic and Aristotelian Views on the Role and...

Introduction Women’s rights and societal roles have varied throughout history. Yet, a common theme that is notable across many times and cultures is the notion that women are inferior to men. In ancient Greece, the opinion toward women followed this trend, and women were often overlooked in how they could contribute to society. It was rarely considered that the traits women share could be of use beyond their household duties. In this essay I will analyze the Platonic and Aristotelian views on the role and status of women. Although Plato and Aristotle had distinct beliefs on what women could contribute to the collective well being of society, they shared similar opinions about the genuine status that women had in comparison to men. The†¦show more content†¦In the Republic of Plato, Plato’s views are described through his teacher Socrates, and it is in Book V of the Republic that Plato’s view on the role of women is illuminated. The discussion until this p oint in the Republic had concerned the search for justice within the city and within the soul. At the end of Book IV, justice in the city was found within the principle of specialization, that each should adhere to the work they are best suited for. Likewise, justice within the individual was discovered within the tripartite structure of the soul, and resonated when the rational part of the soul ruled over the spirited and appetitive sections (Republic 440c-445e). Although the search for justice at the city-level and within the individual had been found the question of justice led into the further discussions of equally fundamental questions. In Book V the discussion delved into the idea of a community of women and children. This proposal had arisen from Socrates’ discussion of the lifestyle of the guardian class. The societal structure that Plato offered contained three main classes: The workers, auxiliary and the guardians. He advanced the view that although society must contain all three, it was the guardian class that possessed the wisdom and truth within society; therefore those within the guardian class must be brought up with the utmost care. Since the guardian class was so fundamental to the good of the community those within it hasShow MoreRelatedLanguage and the Destiny of Man12402 Words   |  50 Pagesof patristic inspiration. However, the later history of ideas was not sympathetic to Descartes: nowadays, when one looks up the term â€Å"metaphysical dualism† in dictionaries or glossaries, even in the studies of prestigious researchers, one will find views similar to those of the unfaithful disc iple Regius. The resilience of this locus obscurus is explained both by the power of a new mode of interpreting discourse (as technical or logical analysis) and by the ever more privileged position of the readerRead MoreCompare and Contrast Functionalism and Structuralism14315 Words   |  58 Pagesanother psychologist, Frances Cherry (Cherry 2007), drawing upon feminist theory, argued that the sexist assumptions, prevalent in the 1960s, were a more likely explanation of what happened. In those days, she said, a lot of men’s violence towards women was not really treated as a crime. The police in the USA and the UK usually treated attacks like this – even very violent ones – as ‘domestic’ incidents and hence private matters. Worse, common wisdom at that time assumed that any woman stupid or brazenRead MoreA Picatrix Miscellany52019 Words   |  209 Pagesthe understanding of matters divine, natural and moral, and on the other as the premise for mag ic, which is its conclusio. In the first section there are verbal echoes of al-Fà ¢rà ¢bà ®Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s Classification of the Sciences (Ihsà ¢ al-’Ulà »m) and the Neo-Platonic doctrines of the pseudo-Empedocles. The chapter ends with an excursus on the definition of some logical concepts, suggested by the word conclusio. Chapter 2 gives a definition of magic according to the Ihwà ¢n al-Safà ¢Ã¢â‚¬â„¢, and of talismans according toRead MoreMetz Film Language a Semiotics of the Cinema PDF100902 Words   |  316 Pagesactualized in analysis). The work of the contemporary French linguist Andrà © Martinet provides the author with more methodological concepts (see Elements of General Linguistics, translated by Elizabeth Palmer. London: Faber Faber, 1960; also, A Functional View of Language, Oxford University Press, New York, 1962). Especially important is Martinet s theory of double articulation, according to which the potentially unlimited number of linguistic statements a language system may express is derived from a few