Plato, Aristotle and Augustine’s Contrasting Views about Women

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With respect to their differing philosophical beliefs, philosophers Plato and Aristotle would ultimately argue with respect to women and their place in society, the home, and their relationship with politics. Although, Augustine was not a philosopher, he would often make references about women. Most often, Augustine would abide by the teachings of his religion in explaining women and their place not only the confines of a marriage, but also, in relation to God. The importance of their views with respect to women, politics and religion have arguably shaped the ideals and social morals of current Western thought and ideologies.

Women in Society and the Household

With respect to women and their place in Greek society, it was essentially based on the family unit. Initially, the household and/or Oikos were composed of both free individuals and slaves. Basically, the Oikos were under the dominion of the head of the household, and were bound by a set of complex family relationships. “The household covered not only the members of the nuclear family, but the whole physical and economic unit, including property, and land, and there was strict limitation of succession by inheritance.”1 Interestingly, with respect inheritance, marriage and property, the primary concern was for the preservation of the family, their survival and the survival of the Oikos. “Typically a man would marry when the property was divided on death…and would eventually establish his own Oikos…thirty or thirty five appears to have been the normal age for a man to marry.”2 It was stated in Athenian law that sons succeed their fathers, and all sons were to share the inheritance. However, a family with no sons, the inheritance would most often be left to the daug...

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...s, 2008), 12

31 Blundell, Women in Classical Athens, 12-3.

32 Fred Miller. 2009. Aristotle’s Political Theory. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-politics/ (Accessed July 6 )

33 Stark, Feminist Interpretations of Augustine, 57.

34 Stark, Feminist Interpretations of Augustine, 56-7.

35 Bella Vivante, Daughters of Gaia: Women in the Ancient Mediterranean World (Greenwood Publishing Group Inc. 2007) 116.

36 Vivante, Daughters of Gaia, 116-117

37 Chan, Political Philosophy, The Republic Book V

38 Chan, Political Philosophy, The Republic Book V

39 Brown, Plato’s Ethics in the Republic

40 Pomeroy, Spartan Women,61-3.

41 Pomeroy, Spartan Women, 54-5.

42 Pomeroy, Spartan Women, 63.

43 Pomeroy, Spartan Women, 59.

44 Cahn, Political Philosophy, 225.

45 Stark, Feminist Interpretations of Augustine, 57.

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