Malin Grahn-Wilder

This chapter analyzes mythical, biological, and medical models for explaining gender in Ancient sources. The general aim of the chapter is to provide an interpretation of the different explanations of gender in Plato, Aristotle, and Galen, and highlight notions and theoretical debates that form the backdrop for the Stoic views. The Stoics often refer to these earlier debates, and also some more specific questions such as the female role in embryology. Also, some of the more obscure Stoic fragments become understandable within the general framework of Ancient debates on gender.

Marriage is a reoccurring topic in Ancient philosophy. The Roman Stoics in particular take up marriage and family life as topics worthy of serious philosophical concern. This chapter analyzes the later Stoic discussions on marriage, family, and choices of good ways of life. As this chapter demonstrates, the Stoic discussions on marriage and family life relate to many of the fundamental ideas in their ethics and political thought. One important context in which the Stoics discuss bonds with loved ones, paradigmatically with one’s spouse and children, is in relation to their theory of indifferent things.

This chapter analyzes the Stoic discussions of physical manifestations of femininity and masculinity. The important philosophical topics concern choice, nature, and indifference. The first subchapter analyzes the Ancient juxtapositions between physical beauty and beautiful character as well as between animal and human natures. The second subchapter scrutinizes the multiple ways of understanding “nature” in Stoicism and discusses which parts of nature are considered as significant for the highest human goals. The third subchapter analyzes the specific problem of the philosopher’s beard—a gendered sign of wisdom often mentioned in the original sources. The final subchapter discusses the continuities and differences between the early and later Stoics’ ways of attaching meanings to culturally constructed gendered signs such as body hairs, perfumes, and physical looks.

This chapter analyzes the connection between gender and education in Stoic philosophy and argues that the Stoic theory provides the premises on which to construct a strong case for the equal education of girls and boys. The Stoic views on children are analyzed in two parts, first focusing on their ways of demarcating childhood through privation (such as irrationality, moral irresponsibility, lack of emotions in the Stoic sense of the term), and then highlighting the positive content of children such as the claim that children in some sense perceive the world correctly and are born with impulses for self-preservation. The latter remark is linked to the central Stoic theory of oikeiôsis. In both contexts, the sources support a view of equal capacities of girls and boys.

Sexuality features strongly in Stoic texts as an important sphere of life in which self-control, emotions, correctness of impressions, and good relationships with other people are at stake. This chapter investigates the Stoic views on sexual ethics and the role of sexuality in good life. The first subchapter approaches the topic through the Stoic notions of different types of friendship among which they count “erotic friendship.” In this context, an important discussion concerns the juxtaposition between good and bad forms of erotic love. The second subchapter presents a reading according to which the Stoic ethics was concerned with sexuality primarily because of the ways it endangers the individual’s inner freedom, not because sexuality per se was considered morally susceptible.

This chapter investigates the role of gender in Stoic metaphysics. I place gender within the framework of the Stoic theory of four categories: substance, the qualified, the disposed and the relatively disposed. I show that particularly the second category of the “qualified” proves fruitful for understanding the metaphysical status of gender. This chapter provides an interpretation of the metaphysical insignificance of gender in the Stoic theory. The analysis of relevant passages in the original sources shows that the Stoic metaphysics provides a strong argument for equal rationality of men and women. This chapter also demonstrates that sexuality as such should not be understood as a lower level soul function, but an aspect of the rational soul.

This chapter scrutinizes the roles of gender, sexuality, and marriage in early Stoic political utopias. This chapter discusses the early Stoic utopias as idealizations of what a perfectly virtuous state or community would be like; as contra-factual arguments or “thought experiments” rather than actual suggestions that imply any kind of real political reform. The first subchapter discusses the abolishment of marriage and other traditional social institutions in the Stoic utopia, and proposes that sexual freedom would have prevailed among the sages of the utopian society. Plato’s Republic, the Cynics, and the early Stoics all promoted a polygamous ideal, formulated as “holding women in common”.

This chapter presents an interpretation of the erotic images used in Stoic cosmology, highlighting particularly the role of analogy in their epistemology. This chapter also critically discusses interpretations which treat the sexual images as literal statements of the Stoic account of the creation of the cosmos. This chapter shows, however, that the sexual analogy is not very effective in casting light on the Stoic first principles. Yet we can see that gendered assumption operate in remarkably different ways in the Stoics compared to their predecessors. The chapter highlights particularly such juxtapositions as activity–passivity which often have received gendered interpretation in the history of philosophy.

This chapter scrutinizes Stoic cosmopolitanism from the point of view of gender and shows that this theory provides a powerful argument for equality of men and women. This chapter shows that Hierocles’ famous argument of extending circles proposes that men and women are equally valuable both as subjects and objects of ethical action. Similarly, Cicero’s and Marcus Aurelius’ versions of the cosmopolitan argument emphasize common and shared humanity. This chapter also proposes that the close human relations have an outmost importance in Stoicism since they provide a model for expanding the sphere of ethics to cover the entire human kind. Nevertheless, one’s spouse and family form the privileged sphere for exercising virtue. This chapter analyzes the importance of this idea in the light of contemporary feminist thinkers who have emphasized the philosophical importance of private spheres of life, family, and intimate relationships.

Ancient thinkers often refer to gender in the connection of their discussions on characters. Certain characteristics such as the tendency to weep are labeled “effeminate,” whereas the virtue of courage seemingly indicates a type of ideal manliness (andreia stems from the Greek term anêr for a man). In this chapter, I first outline the philosophical problems that are at stake in an investigation of characters, and then analyze the connections between character, education, and gender in Plato and Aristotle.

This chapter analyzes gender in the context of the Ancient science of physiognomy (physiognômonia). Physiognomy draws connections between physical features and characteristics of the soul, presuming that the inner character is displayed in the outer appearance among both animals and humans. This theory is interesting from the point of view of gender since it often labels different characteristics effeminate and masculine. There is evidence that at least certain Stoic thinkers sympathized with physiognomic ideas and applied them to their discussions on characteristics.

The introductory chapter presents the topic and scope of the book, places it in the context of Ancient scholarship, and clarifies the central concepts. This book investigates Ancient Stoic philosopher’s views on gender and sexuality throughout the different fields of philosophy: from cosmology to cosmopolitanism, from metaphysics to moral psychology, and from physics to the philosophy of life. The work also introduces original research questions by scrutinizing topics such as the Stoic views on cosmetics, body hairs, embryology, and female exempla used in original sources. This book aims to provide a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the significance of gender in Stoic philosophy.

This book investigates the Ancient Stoic thinkers’ views on gender and sexuality. A detailed scrutiny of metaphysics, ethics and political philosophy reveals that the Stoic philosophers held an exceptionally equal view of men and women’s rational capacities. In its own time, Stoicism was frequently called ‘ the manly school’ of philosophy, but this volume shows that the Stoics would have also transformed many traditional notions of masculinity. Malin Grahn-Wilder compares the earlier philosophies of Plato and Aristotle to show that the Stoic position often stands out within Ancient philosophy as an exceptionally bold defense of women’s possibilities to achieve the highest form of wisdom and happiness. The work argues that the Stoic metaphysical notion of human being is based on strikingly egalitarian premises, and opens new perspectives to Stoic philosophy on the whole.