One Genus (γενος) -One Form (εἰδος) Hypothesis in Hellenistic Anthropogeny: Gender Discrimination as Quantitative Difference
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Do man and woman belong to the same genus or two different genera? To answer the question, this paper researched into the Hellenistic anthropogeny focusing on Plato and Aristotle, with the implication that they are philosophical founders of feminism as well as anti-feminism. The philosophical founders are really ambivalent in terms of gender discourse, and it seems so volatile to jump to a conclusion putting them on either side. Plato’s anthropogeny begins with the idea of metasomatosis, an idea that the first anthropoi were andres, the souls of whom were reincarnated in the bodies of women when they were corrupted in a cowardly manner. A female body is a defective form of the male genus. Plato argues, however, that philosophically there is only one virtue or excellence of any kind both men and women pursue, so no one can say there is one kind belonging to a man, another to a woman. Human beings are individuals, and gender difference is related to individual variations. His successor Aristotle tries to find a way to include gender difference in the concept of genus, with no dividing the human genus into two different forms. In terms of biological correspondence, a genus is made up of two genders in one form, for the continual reproduction of it. Gender difference is a kind of variation on the basis of quantitative inequality or deficiency, with which the semen of female is not capable of producing a living thing with soul in it. Only the semen of male provides the principles of form and of movement. Then, he is faced with a dilemma: How does it happen that a daughter resembles her mother? Aristotle comes to this conclusion that a mother can also be a progenitor, prevailing over the process of generation as an active principle, not merely a principle of matter and body. The Hellenistic anthropogeny works as the very matrix of modern sociobiological feminism and biopolitical feminism.
Abstract
Do man and woman belong to the same genus or two different genera? To answer the question, this paper researched into the Hellenistic anthropogeny focusing on Plato and Aristotle, with the implication that they are philosophical founders of feminism as well as anti-feminism. The philosophical founders are really ambivalent in terms of gender discourse, and it seems so volatile to jump to a conclusion putting them on either side. Plato’s anthropogeny begins with the idea of metasomatosis, an idea that the first anthropoi were andres, the souls of whom were reincarnated in the bodies of women when they were corrupted in a cowardly manner. A female body is a defective form of the male genus. Plato argues, however, that philosophically there is only one virtue or excellence of any kind both men and women pursue, so no one can say there is one kind belonging to a man, another to a woman. Human beings are individuals, and gender difference is related to individual variations. His successor Aristotle tries to find a way to include gender difference in the concept of genus, with no dividing the human genus into two different forms. In terms of biological correspondence, a genus is made up of two genders in one form, for the continual reproduction of it. Gender difference is a kind of variation on the basis of quantitative inequality or deficiency, with which the semen of female is not capable of producing a living thing with soul in it. Only the semen of male provides the principles of form and of movement. Then, he is faced with a dilemma: How does it happen that a daughter resembles her mother? Aristotle comes to this conclusion that a mother can also be a progenitor, prevailing over the process of generation as an active principle, not merely a principle of matter and body. The Hellenistic anthropogeny works as the very matrix of modern sociobiological feminism and biopolitical feminism.
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