Plato (~425–348 BCE) and Aristotle (384–322 BCE) are arguably the two most influential Greek philosophers in the development of western Eurasian civilizations, but among their differences was one that impacted the way women are treated even today.
Both believed that social roles should be assigned to each individual's nature, and both believed those natures were driven by an individual's psychosomatic makeup. They agreed on the roles of enslaved people, barbarians, children, and artisans, but not about women.
Based on his writings in the Republic and most of the Dialogues, Plato was seemingly open to the potential equality of men and women. Plato believed in metempsychosis (essentially reincarnation), that the human soul was sexless and could change genders from life to life. It was only logical that, since souls are immutable, they bring the same abilities with them from body to body. Accordingly, he said, women should have equal access to education and politics.
Plato, Republic: "If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.”
On the other hand, Aristotle, Plato's student and colleague at the Academy in Athens, believed that women were fit only to be the subjects of male rule. Women have the deliberative part of the soul, he said, but it isn't sovereign in nature: they are born to be ruled by men in a constitutional sense, as a citizens rule other citizens. Human beings are the union of body and soul, he said, and nature has designed the female body for one job: procreation and nurturing.
Aristotle, Politics: "The slave is wholly lacking the deliberative element; the female has it but it lacks authority; the child has it but it is incomplete."
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