THE CONSTITUTION OF THE SOUL: ARISTOTLE ON LACK OF DELIBERATIVE AUTHORITY

My aim in this paper is to examine Aristotle's puzzling and contentious claim in Politics 1.13 that the deliberative faculty in women is ‘without authority’ (ἄκυρον): The freeman rules over the slave after another manner from that in which the male rules over the female, or the man over the chi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Classical quarterly 2015-12, Vol.65 (2), p.572-586
Main Author: Nielsen, Karen Margrethe
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aristotle
Children
Classical studies
Greek civilization
Politics
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Summary:My aim in this paper is to examine Aristotle's puzzling and contentious claim in Politics 1.13 that the deliberative faculty in women is ‘without authority’ (ἄκυρον): The freeman rules over the slave after another manner from that in which the male rules over the female, or the man over the child; although the parts of the soul are present in all of them, they are present in different ways. For the slave lacks the deliberative faculty (τὸ βουλευτικόν) altogether; the woman has it, but it is without authority (ἄκυρον), and the child has it, but it is immature (ἀτελές). (Pol. 1.13, 1160a10-15)
ISSN:0009-8388
1471-6844
DOI:10.1017/S0009838815000063