Prompt #2

Trevor Purkiser

Ms. Wagener

AP English Language

5 August 2013

"Aristotle": Views on Women

In the past, women were viewed as very unimportant people. To men their only uses were having children and managing the house. Men always held the dominant role in society and even still do today. Even though women are welcomed into the "man’s world" today, they are still mistreated to an extent. To philosophers of the past, such as Aristotle, women were "incomplete". Some philosophers thought otherwise, but most agreed with this. That may be partly due to the fact that all major philosophers, up until the 20th century were male.

Aristotle was one of the most important philosophers of the past. That is why his views on women are hard to believe. He thought women were "unfinished men". Also, he believed in reproduction that the child got all of the characteristics came from the man and that the woman was just there to carry the baby until it was born. He is essentially just saying that women were put on this world to extend the family tree which is very demeaning. You would think as a philosopher, that Aristotle wouldn’t have this close-minded of a view on women. I think that if Aristotle could see all of the advancements women have made over the years he would re-evaluate his whole theory.

Not all philosophers of ancient times agreed with Aristotle’s demeaning view on women. Plato thought that women were equal if given the opportunity to train and be educated like men. He compared the only training the men to only training your right arm. Too bad Plato’s thoughts didn’t shape the Middle Ages the way Aristotle’s did, otherwise women would have gotten their chance sooner. Nowadays, women are educated and given the same opportunities of men and the world is a better place because of it.

All of the philosophers discussed in this novel are male. This just proves the point that women were thought of as unimportant and they were ignored. If they had been educated, just think of how much advancement could have been made. Throughout history the potential of many women was wasted. The fact that no important discoveries were made by women is saddening in my opinion.

Women were neglected for many years. While this was wrong, there is nothing we can do about it now but work towards more equality between men and women. Women are valuable for more things than taking care of children and cleaning the house as they have shown in recent years. All they ever needed was a chance.