Plato On Women

This essay try to draw some feminism approaches to Plato, and discusses the opinion of women of Plato. And whether has the opinion affected his metaphysical framework? The article will be divided into three chapters: Firstly, in Republic, Plato's Socrates put forward two proposals about women: invited certain women into the Guardians class and abolish nuclear family and private property. This sounds a feminist. Plato's proposals let the women get the right to education, right to vocational opportunity, and they can acquire legal capacity and political rights. Sometimes Plato has been hailed as Ur-feminist. While, Plato's proposals solely in terms of benefit and good to the state, and make no reference to women's desires or needs; and the women which should be Guardians maybe are some "maleness". Otherwise, Plato's Socrates believed that the male sex is superior to the female. The proposal that 'all the women and children should be in common' is a eugenics intention.Secondly, these proposals are philosophically based, and for this we have a closer look at the Theaetetus, 174a. It is a dualism between entities associated with masculinity (logos, spirit, idea) and those with femininity (emotion, body, phenomenon), this difference decide the gender difference. Plato always debases the latter.Thirdly, in Symposium, some arguments about "eros" corroborate the result in chapter two. Diotima, a woman, as a patriarchy mouthpiece, expatiate Plato's idea on"eros" that utilize the procreative feminine experience. Philosophy is come from the intellectual birth between homosexual males. A systematic exploitation of the biological productivity of women brings us to see more clearly how his dualist philosophy - and Greek philosophical in general - is sexist. Diotima's feminine experience can give the philosophical discourses self-sufficiency and durative.Lastly, in a word, the opinions of Plato on women are trailblazing, while he wasn't a feminist. His patriarchy metaphysical framework decided his thoughts about women. Plato found and utilized women's particular experience, because he noticed the difference between the male and female. And these perhaps are the significance of feminism research.