Why are all philosophers men?

Question

Why are all the great thinkers of mankind men? Plato, Aristotle, Derrida .. just so many. Why no women?

Answer 1

Well, the simple answer is because women are viewed as inferior in today's society, which I think is very unfortunate.

There are many great women philosphers, but because men are the dominant writers of our history, they leave them out. If you really take a deep look into history, you'll find that the ancient philosphers, such as Plato, very much advocated women. They valued intellect no matter what body they were housed in.

We live in a very sexist society, for some reason, and the voices of many great women are masked by the views of men.

Take a look at this website and you can see that there are a multitude of women writers, poets, and philosophers:
http://www.geocities.com/athens/forum/9974/.

Answer 2

As i see it there are two reasons.


The first reason is that women were traditionally thought to be no more than their fathers daughter who become their husband's wife. They were kept out of academia and politics. So its not that there were not intellectually gifted women, but that their was no printing press to preserve their ideas.

The second reason is that since philosophy, as an academic field, was developed by men, it takes a very reductionist approach. In the case of logic, the sentences are symbolized. There is nothing wrong with a reductionist approach to a problem, however this alone does not seem to get at the truth of reality, if that can be known. Now i am not sexist, i am number one feminist, but men and women think differently. I think women are much more adept at holistic thinking. Looking at the larger picture, and the entire screen. I think that true philosophy must blend the two. Now i do not think that men lack the capacity to think holisticly, and i do not thin k that women cant think as a reductionist. i think that everyone can do both, but that the genders naturally arrive at different approaches on the whole.

Answer 3

As a collective the male brain is designed to solve problems and the female brain is designed to care for the young. This goes back in time before man could read write. The females of any species drives the way males turn out. The animal kingdom has hundreds of exmaples, the male Peacock for one. There is no practical use for that huge plume of feathers other than to attract a mate. And so its the same in humans. The females chose males that were good at problem solving hence to provide food and shelter. Over generations the male brain became more adept at solving problems. How to provide food and shelter. To solve problems you need to think so that trait was concerntrated. As dog breeders breed dogs for certain characteristic's. There was no driving facter for men to pick females that could problem solve. Males wanted a carer for their children so a female that could care really well for the children were more likely get the prime male. These wern't consience thoughts these were traits or instincts that ensured the survival of the human race.

Fast forward to today and those same traits are still there We have a saying "follow your instincts". So throughout history there where more male philosophers than female. As we move into the future those traits are not longer the driving facters so there are more likely to be more female philosophers.

Its only a guess as to why there are where more male than female philosophers

Answer 4

To be a successful philosopher like Plato, Aristotle or Socrates, you need a very big brain. A man's brain is twice the size of any woman's.

Women's brains are highly alert and sensitive to matters concerning the heart and protecting the young.

Men's brains, while larger, are more focused upon matters spiritual as well as philosophical.

Man the hunter
Woman the gatherer

Collectively, the hunter gatherers.

The hunter brings home dead animals.

The gatherer brings home herbal cures and makes people well.

Male and female have roles which cannot be reversed or changed, in spite of modern equality, which for the most part is not working.

Answer 5

Women simply are not as deep, or as thoughtful as men. They do not have the innate capacity or inclination for philosophy. They get bored quickly and are easily distracted. This is not sexist bunkum, it's just biological fact. Women should concentrate on doing the domestic things well, and on making themselves looking pretty for their man. If they did that, then the world would be a lot happier place.

Answer 6

I don't want to sound disrespectful to women however I am going to because women have a tendency to think that the universe revolves around themselves, a false view which is disrespectful to other peoples views and cultures.

As a consequence philosophy is not the best choice of career for females.

Stick to religion and war instead.

Answer 7

this is a good site!
http://www.bios.niu.edu/wis/profiles.html

here is an example:

Aglaonike
5th century B.C.
Greece-astronomer
Aglaonike was a Greek astronomer during the 5th century B.C. She had the ability to accurately predict the times and locations of lunar eclipses. From this knowledge, Aglaonike is considered to be one of the first woman astronomers. Because of her gender, her skills were attributed to sorcery, rather than scientific ability. People of her time thought that she was a witch and could control others with fear and "magic".

Answer 8

Women believe in Control . Control men and own their thinking.

Did you observe any man- philosopher venturing into the philosophy of this reality, because women never wanted of them that way .

Answer 9

That`s all men do is sit thinking. Women are much too busy. However remember behind all great men there is a great woman, either his mum or his wife.

Answer 10

there are lots of great women philosophers -- but because of the structure of society, they all popped up only when we took our foot off the back of their necks, and we still want to give them a shove back down once in awhile.
check out philippa foot -- she's one of the most prominent moral philosophers of the 20th century
christine korsgaard is a leading kantian ethicist

there are lots of others, but still women only make up 19% of the current professional field, and most of them are *not* prominently placed.
it is getting better.