In the fourth chapter of Plato: A Very Short Introduction, titled "Love, sex, gender, and philosophy," author Julia Annas introduces the concept of not seeing Plato as a whole. According to Saint Augustine, Plato was a pagan philosopher who came closest to Christianity. The early church eager to use Plato as a tool in their intellectual development had to turn a blind eye against some of his practices which by their standards would be worthy of condemnation.
Plato lived in a time when sexual and erotic relationships were socially accepted and taken for granted, especially those between adult men and teenaged boys in a mentor/mentee relationship. Plato admits and takes a romantic view of these relationships. He believes these relationships rise above the physical to include the spiritual by having the awareness and care of one's soul or mental well-being. This view of love rising above the physical and care of soul became known as Platonic love.
In Symposium, real love is displayed with Alcibiades a beautiful, intelligent, and wealthy Athenian who was conditioned to being pursued by older men and fascinated as to why Socrates did not. He realized that Socrates makes him ashamed and seeks a relationship to include more than just a little sex with the expectation that it will make him a better person.
Aside from the concern of one's soul, another view of Plato regarding sex is the urge to inquire about philosophy and the understanding that it originates with sexual desire. This view is presented in Symposium, which has Socrates telling us erotic urging leads a person beyond just a particular gratification and one that leads to thinking of and understanding universal truths. Furthermore, Plato believes the drive for philosophy has to be genuine and has to come from within you and that philosophy is a joint activity that should not be practiced alone. Mutual concerns need to be discussed and argued to achieve satisfaction which could not be obtained if practiced separately.
How does a woman feel from reading these works? This Athenian view was a society that preferred producing intellectual offspring between men over the physical offspring created by men and women - not to mention Plato's disregard for the effect it had on women.
What about a women's family? Plato did not care much for the nuclear family. He felt they were a hindrance to the city and its ideals because of its selfishness and competitive nature. The nuclear family led to isolation and hostility to those outside the family, and this would weaken the model of a unified city. The nuclear family also held back a woman as it did not allow her to develop her physical and mental capacities. This idea was formed in the Republic where women become warriors and philosophers. In Laws, this idea is also portrayed but to a lesser extent where the nuclear family is held intact.
It appears Plato is all for equality for the sexes, but although he believed women should have the same opportunity as men, he saw them not being able to perform and achieve at the same mark as men at both the physical and mental levels. Both of these views have led people to call Plato both a feminist and an anti-feminist.
Plato's views on sex, love, and gender were kept behind closed doors until the 20th century, primarily because homosexuality was unspeakable and that men's roles becoming extended to women were laughable.
Questions:
Why did Plato have conflicting views of male and female equality leading to people calling Plato both a feminist and an anti-feminist?
From our perspective Plato's feminism is definitely incomplete, insofar as he still privileges male relationships in the ultimate Boys' Club that would exclude women from full participation in positions of status and leadership. On the other hand, he's still ahead of his time in urging men to transcend the view of women as objects of love, lust, and domestic convenience. Rebecca Goldstein's "Plato at the Googleplex," whimsical though it is, tries to give him his due in this regard. You'll enjoy it.
ReplyDeletePlato, as many, had conflicting views on the capability of women to perform a mans job. Back then women were considered to be upmost proper and keepers of the home. To see them prosper in a man's world with hard labor and toil, was hard to believe. Nowadays, women have grown stronger and taken on more work that a man would be considered to do. As we have grown as a society, our societal views have grown as well. It was not Plato's fault to think of women as "softer" than man, its simply how the idea was in that time period.
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