[SydPhil] Critical Antiquities Workshop - Cinzia Arruzza

[Tristan Bradshaw]

Dear all,

At the final Critical Antiquities Workshop for 2023, we are very excited to host Cinzia Arruzza (Philosophy, The New School for Social Research) for her paper, ‘Sexual Difference in Question: The Justice of the “First Wave” in Plato’s Republic.’


The event will take place on Zoom on Thursday, November 30, 9:30am-11am (Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne time).

Here is the time in other locations:


  *   Los Angeles/Vancouver: Wednesday, November 15, 2:30pm
  *   Chicago/Mexico City: Wednesday, November 15, 4:30pm
  *   New York: Wednesday, November 15, 5:30pm
  *   Santiago/Buenos Aires/Rio de Janeiro: Wednesday, November 15, 7:30pm
  *   Dublin/Belfast/London: Wednesday, November 15, 10:30pm
  *   Paris/Berlin/Rome: Wednesday, November 15, 11:30pm
  *   Johannesburg/Athens/Cairo: Thursday, November 16, 12:30am
  *   Beijing/Singapore/Perth: Thursday, November 16, 6:30am
  *   Tokyo: Thursday, November 16, 7:30am
  *   Darwin: Thursday, November 16, 8am
  *   Brisbane: Thursday, November 16, 8:30am
  *   Adelaide: Thursday, November 16, 9am

To register, please sign up for the Critical Antiquities Network mailing list to receive Zoom links and CAN announcements: https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/o1a5C3QNPBiXzklL6Tg6kKY?domain=signup.e2ma.net

Here is the abstract:

In the so-called first wave of Republic 5, Socrates argues that men and women in the guardian class will share everything in common. As I will show, the argument contains two distinct and equally necessary steps. If guardian men and women ought to share every activity in common, this requires that 1. there are no activities that are the purview of women qua women and from which men ought to be excluded and 2. there are no activities that are the purview of men qua men and from which women ought to be excluded. Socrates’ claim at 455c5-d2 demonstrates the first half of the thesis by appealing to experience: in all activities pertaining the polis we have empirical proof that men as a sex excel over women, hence there are no activities that are the exclusive purview of women. The interaction between Socrates and Glaucon demonstrates the second half of the claim, once again based on induction: in many fields – which ought to include the management of the city – many individual women are better than many men: this shows that, in principle, women’s nature qua women is not an obstacle to their acquiring the same virtues and taking up the same activities as men, hence there is no activity that is the purview of men qua men. Furthermore, I will argue that the first wave’s argument comprises the following set of claims: i. As far as the administration of the city is concerned, natural vocations are judged first and foremost based on features that pertain to the soul; ii. The soul has no sex, hence at the level of the soul it makes no sense to speak of male or female superiority; iii. The soul, however, is embodied; iv. Bodies are differentiated by sex and women’s bodies are weaker and more prone to disease; v. Bodies are the tools of dianoia and weaker bodies are, therefore, weaker tools and can even become a hindrance; vi. This determines the inferiority of the female sex, insofar as its members are embodied souls. On this reading, female bodies would not be an intractable hindrance, but they would still represent a comparative disadvantage. This comparative disadvantage of the female sex as a whole, however, does not rule out that on an individual level women qualify among the top positions.

We hope to see you there,

Tristan and Ben

Tristan Bradshaw
Lecturer, School of Liberal Arts | Co-director, Critical Antiquities Network
Faculty of the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities | Building 19 Room 1085
University of Wollongong NSW 2522 Australia
T +61 2 4221 3850
uow.edu.au<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/NS-xC4QOPEizKVOLMHxoGFn?domain=uow.edu.au> | criticalantiquities.org<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/5UcvC5QPXJiMLJ7q5hyD5q1?domain=criticalantiquities.org>
Honorary Associate
University of Sydney
School of Humanities, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

University of Wollongong CRICOS: 00102E



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