PHIL 210
I
Plato’s Attitude toward Women
Lesher
Some relevant passages from Plato’s dialogues:
1. Republic 451d ff. (see p. 448) and 455c-d (see pp. 451-52).
2. Meno 71e: ‘[The virtue of a man is] managing the city’s affairs capably, so that he will help his friends and
injure his foes while taking care to come to no harm himself. [The virtuous woman]...must be a good housewife,
careful with her stores and obedient to her husband.’
3. Phaedo 60a: ‘As soon as Xanthippe saw us she broke out into the sort of remark you would expect from a
woman, “Oh, Socrates, this is the last time you and your friends will be able to talk together.” Socrates looked at
Crito. “Crito”, he said, “someone had better take her home.’
4. Timaeus 42b-c: ‘And if a person lived a good life throughout the due course of his time, he would at the end
return to his dwelling place in his companion star, to live a life of happiness that agreed with is character. But if
he failed in this, he would be born a second time as a woman. And if even then he still could not refrain from
wickedness he would be changed once again into a wild animal that resembled the wickedness of his character.’
5. Theaetetus 174a: ‘...when Thales was engaged in his astronomical studies and had his gaze turned upward he
fell into a well. A charming and attractive Thracian serving girl is said to have mocked him for being so eager to
know what was happening in the sky he could not see what lay at his feet.’
II
Some comments on these passages:
1. ‘In the ideally best society outlined in Books IV to VII of the Republic the position of women in the ruling
elite, the so-called guardians, is unambiguously feminist.’ (Gregory Vlastos, ‘Was Plato a Feminist?’ in Tuana
(see over, p. 12.)
2. ‘Plato’s critique of marriage and the nuclear family, coupled with his provisions for an androgynous life style
accessible through equal education and state-supported child care foreshadows the ideas of modern radical
feminists such as Shulamith Firestone and Simone de Beauvoir...Yet Plato’s philosophy was not undiluted
feminism. He did not believe that women were, on the whole, equal to men...’ (Sarah Pomeroy, see over, pp.
117-18)
3. ‘The apparent paradox should now be clear: Plato both despised women as a class, and advocated more
liberation and privilege for them than any man in history had ever done, so far we know...He did not like or
admire us. But he felt it would be just and expedient to give us a chance.’ (Dorothea Wender, see over, p. 90)
4. ‘[Plato’s proposal] is ‘often thought to be a feminist proposal ahead of its time, an affirmation of women’s
rights, and a protest against their subordination, not to be taken up until Mill’s The Subjection of Women. In fact
it is not...He never points to any unhappiness caused by the low status of women in his day...It is obvious from
the references in his writings that he has a low opinion of women as they are, and thinks them capable neither of
liberating themselves nor of having opinions worth considering. Nor is Plato concerned with women’s rights; as
we have seen he lacks the notions of equal human worth and dignity that stand behind theories of human rights.
He sees women merely as a huge untapped pool of resources...Benefit to the state is the sole, frequently repeated
ground for the proposals...This is not an argument that springs from serious consideration of women’s talents
and capacities.’ (Julia Annas, see over, pp. 181 ff.)
5. ‘...the maidservant’s laughter [in Plato’s Theaetetus]...constitutes a clear indication of women’s alienation
from the kind of knowledge that has excluded them, and in the service of which they ultimately offer to act as
dutiful facilitators.’ (Adriana Cavarero, see over, p. 39).
Some Scholarly Literature Relating to Women in Ancient Greek Philosophy
Julia Annas, An Introduction to Plato’s Republic (New York, 1981).
Marilin B. Arthur, ‘Early Greece: the origins of the Western attitude toward women,’ Arethusa, Vol. 6 (1973),
pp. 7-58.
Adriana Cavarero, In Spite of Plato: A Feminist Rewriting of Ancient Philosophy (New York, 1995).
R.M. Dancy, review of Waite (see below) in Hypatia, Vol. 4 (1989), pp. 160-171).
Cynthia Freeland, ed., Feminist Interpretations of Aristotle (University Park, Pa., 1998).
Marcia Homiak, ‘Feminism and Aristotle’s Rational Ideal’ in Julie K. Ward, ed., Feminism in Ancient
Philosophy (New York and London, 1996), pp. 119-37.
M.R. Lefkowitz and M.B. Fant, Women’s Life in Greece and Rome (Johns Hopkins U.P., 1992), pp. 23-34.
Linda Nochlin, ‘Why have there been no great women artists?’ in Women, Art, and Power and Other Essays
(New York, 1988).
Sarah B. Pomeroy, Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves (New York, 1975), esp. pp. 71-84.
Donald Richter, ‘The Position of Women in Classical Athens,’ Classical Journal, Vol. 67 (1971), pp. 1-8.
Holger Thesleff, An Introduction to the Pythagorean Writings of the Hellenistic Period: Acta Academiae
Aboensis, Humaniora 24.1, (Abo Akademi: Abo, 1961); The Pythagorean Texts of the Hellenistic Period: Acta
Academiae Aboensis, Humaniora Ser. A, Vol. 30, no. 1 (Abo Akademi: Abo, 1965).
Nancy Tuana, ed., Feminist Interpretations of Plato (University Park, Pa., 1994).
M. E. Waite, A History of Women Philosophers, Vol. I (Dordrecht, 1987).
Dorothea Wender, ‘Plato: Misogynist, Paedophile, and Feminist,’ Arethusa, Vol. 6 (1973), pp. 75-90.
Julie K. Ward, ‘Harmonia and Koinonia: Moral Values for Pythagorean Women’ in Explorations in Feminist
Ethics: Theory and Practice (Indiana U.P.: Bloomington, 1992) pp. 57-68.
____________, ed., Feminism and Ancient Philosophy (New York, 1996).
Kathleen Wider, ‘Women Philosophers in the Ancient World: Donning the Mantle,’ Hypatia, Vol. I (1986), pp.
21-62.