Plato on Female 'Weakness': From Biology to Politics

Kód výsledku v IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11210%2F25%3A10509108" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11210/25:10509108 - isvavai.cz</a>

Výsledek na webu

<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=H9VB5FjQfj" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=H9VB5FjQfj</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.54563/eugesta.1637" target="_blank" >10.54563/eugesta.1637</a>

Jazyk výsledku

angličtina

Název v původním jazyce

Plato on Female 'Weakness': From Biology to Politics

Popis výsledku v původním jazyce

In response to ongoing debates about Plato&apos;s view of women, this paper focuses on the source of ambiguities that lead different readers to opposite conclusions. Dealing with the Republic and several passages from the Critias and the Laws, it emphasizes that all the passages that imply some sort of women&apos;s inferiority assume one and only reason, namely that women are weaker than men. I argue that, pace other interpretations, this claim repeatedly points to physical weakness, although some passages, especially in the Laws, moralize this weakness precisely in order to reaffirm male superiority. To disentangle the resulting contradictions in Plato&apos;s position, we must consider Plato&apos;s use of two interconnected kinds of argumentation: the analogy between human procreation and animal breeding; and the craft model of human virtue. At the same time, if these argumentative tools co-determine Plato&apos;s conclusions, a strictly theoretical analysis cannot fully explain those passages that describe the situation of women in both the real and imagined cities from a strikingly male perspective. Besides the narrower interpretation of female &quot;weakness&quot;, the paper also offers a more speculative suggestion that Plato sometimes sees this weakness as a specific reflection of what he describes, more generally, as &quot;weakness of human nature&quot;.

Název v anglickém jazyce

Plato on Female 'Weakness': From Biology to Politics

Popis výsledku anglicky

In response to ongoing debates about Plato&apos;s view of women, this paper focuses on the source of ambiguities that lead different readers to opposite conclusions. Dealing with the Republic and several passages from the Critias and the Laws, it emphasizes that all the passages that imply some sort of women&apos;s inferiority assume one and only reason, namely that women are weaker than men. I argue that, pace other interpretations, this claim repeatedly points to physical weakness, although some passages, especially in the Laws, moralize this weakness precisely in order to reaffirm male superiority. To disentangle the resulting contradictions in Plato&apos;s position, we must consider Plato&apos;s use of two interconnected kinds of argumentation: the analogy between human procreation and animal breeding; and the craft model of human virtue. At the same time, if these argumentative tools co-determine Plato&apos;s conclusions, a strictly theoretical analysis cannot fully explain those passages that describe the situation of women in both the real and imagined cities from a strikingly male perspective. Besides the narrower interpretation of female &quot;weakness&quot;, the paper also offers a more speculative suggestion that Plato sometimes sees this weakness as a specific reflection of what he describes, more generally, as &quot;weakness of human nature&quot;.

Druh

J_ost - Ostatní články v recenzovaných periodicích

CEP obor

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OECD FORD obor

60301 - Philosophy, History and Philosophy of science and technology

Projekt

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Návaznosti

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Rok uplatnění

2025

Kód důvěrnosti údajů

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Název periodika

Eugesta

ISSN

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e-ISSN

2265-8777

Svazek periodika

15

Číslo periodika v rámci svazku

1

Stát vydavatele periodika

FR - Francouzská republika

Počet stran výsledku

32

Strana od-do

1-32

Kód UT WoS článku

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EID výsledku v databázi Scopus

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