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4.5
The Man of Reason, by Genevieve Lloyd summarizes the differences between men and women by philosophers beginning with the Presocratics, up through Sartre and Simone De Beauvoir. The impression as one begins reading is to wonder what in the world took women so long to dig themselves out from such unfair, demeaning, and misconceived notions of their nature and role in life. This has been going on for 2500 year, and probably before then. As short as it is, it can only cover the highlights, but it hits upon all the major players, such as Thales, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Spinoza, Hume, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Freud, and Sartre.The point of the title is that for most of these (all male) thinkers, reason was a faculty exercized by men, beyond the capabilities of women. As we come closer to the present, this picture becomes moderated by either improving the natural facilitues of women such as with Augustine and Aquinas, or reducing the importance of reason, as with Hume and Rousseau plus increasing the importance of the woman's affinity for nature. By the time we reach Kant, we can hope that the great innovator of our ideas of reason would have finally levelled the playing field for women. But he doesn't. However, Kant, being the philosophical genius that he was, did see that the only way the role of women was to be improved was by their own efforts, an effort they have been unwilling to take. And he still gave men and women unequal roles.In some ways Hegel was a step backwards from Kant's perception. Hegel permenantly affixed women in the world of the home, the domestic, and the "particular" as a mirror by which men could reach self-realization.The illustrations of the various positions in this book are a beautiful series of examples demonstrating Judith Butler's contention that gender roles are not inherent, they are created by doctrine and practice and dogma. They are as much roles as the role of Oedipus and Antigone are on the stage.My review is based on the printed copy. From what I can see of the Kindle edition, it is virtually identical to the printed 2nd edition. Once more, this is a perfect first step in understanding the history of how the roles of women have been manipulated and depressed by male philosophers.
