Aristotle on Sexual Difference: Metaphysics, Biology, Politics [Hardcover]

Aristotle on Sexual Differenceis a book about Aristotle's understanding of the differences between male and females, and men and women. It considers what he says about biological differences between the sexes, and about psychological differences that he thinks justify different political roles for men and women. It discusses the authors who preceded Aristotle, highlighting that they treat sexual difference as a misfortune, and women as an evil inflicted on men. This book demonstrates that Aristotle rejects that view, and that he argues for the benefit of sexual difference to animal species, and the value of women to their political communities. It also traces a connection between Aristotle's accounts of the physiological defects of women and of their political limitations.Aristotle's remarks about the differences between the sexes have become infamous for their implications for the social status of women. In his observations on female biology, Aristotle claims that the female nature is, as it were, a deformity. In describing women's role in the public sphere, he claims that women are naturally subordinate because, while they possess a deliberative faculty, that capacity is without authority. While both claims express the inferiority of female bodies/women relative to male bodies/men, it is not self-evident that the defects Aristotle identifies in female biology have cognitive or moral manifestations that would justify the rule of men over women in political life. Marguerite Deslauriers here aims to construct a coherent picture of Aristotle's views on sexual and gender-based difference from these remarks and to show the extent to which his views on female biology and women's role in politics are causally connected.Without exculpating Aristotle from charges of misogyny, Deslauriers contextualizes his explanations of the role and origin of female animals in his biology and the role of women in his political philosophy; she shows how Aristotle developed tlÃ