Blog #2

Maggie Vincent

Mrs. Wilhelmus

AP English Language

28 July 2013

Equality

      Equality has been a struggle for humanity all throughout history. Whether it is color, gender, or religion, inequality has always been there. One of the enduring fights is between man and woman. The question of whether or not men and women are equally intelligent and important has been argued a lot throughout time. Fortunately, today women have a much higher place in society than they used to. Hopefully, the path to worldwide equality will be a much smoother road than it has been in the past.             

      Aristotle's belief that women were incomplete men infuriates me. I do not understand how he could believe that men provided the form and that women were merely the substance when it came to reproduction. The fact that Aristotle could not see that the mother had an influence on the child makes no sense to me. Even worse, people believed what he said and it was accepted as the truth. Today we know that the man and the woman each contribute half of the genetic material when reproducing. I liked Plato's view that women had the same potential as men. He said as long as they received the same education they could be just as intelligent. I just wish Aristotle's beliefs had not set women back in the world.

     I was not surprised that the majority of the philosophers that were mentioned were men. Throughout history, men have risen above women because of better educations and more opportunities. The woman that was mentioned, Olympe de Gouges, was killed for speaking out. It has only been in the past century, when women have had access to education, that women have gotten equality.  So much progress has been made in the last century and I cannot wait to see where we are in another one hundred years.  My only hope is that when a book is written about philosophy five hundred years from now, it includes women as well as men.

      Aristotle has since been proven incorrect about his view of women. However, he did plenty of damage with his beliefs. As popular as he was, many people agreed with him and his view of women. If only his mentor, Plato, had been the one the people had believed. Maybe now that men and women are more equal there will be more women written about and listened to on philosophic matters.