Throughout history, the field of philosophy seems to have been practiced mostly by men. These men have had some… choice things to say about women.
Aristotle, for instance, thought that women had fewer teeth than men. I’ve always assumed that this was because Mrs. Aristotle happened to have fewer teeth than he did.
Schopenhauer, famous for his chauvinism, said that, “The weakness of their reasoning faculty also explains why women show more sympathy for the unfortunate than men; …and why, on the contrary, they are inferior to men as regards justice, and less honourable and conscientious.”
Nietzsche, influenced by Schopenhauer (though maybe not on this matter) said: “Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent,” and, my personal favorite, “Everything about woman is a riddle, and everything about woman has a single solution: that is, pregnancy.”
It is my contention that these men are really just bitter because they had bad luck with women. When your heart is broken or you are not sexually satisfied, it’s easier to blame the whole lot than to blame yourself. This isn’t particularly fair, but sometimes blanket statements make you feel better. Not to mention, women didn’t have a whole lot of media with which to contradict those statements.
It makes you wonder what other aspects of philosophy are based on petty feelings.
The truth of the matter comes out in St. Augustine: “Women should not be enlightened or educated in any way. They should, in fact, be segregated as they are the cause of hideous and involuntary erections in holy men.”
Yep, that sounds about right.
