John Stuart Mill And Plato

Women have played important roles throughout history. They have been responsible for the rise and fall of nations, sustaining families, and have been the focal point of worship in ancient religions. Moving forward in history, women's roles have continually changed. Their status as matriarchs changed as the more advanced ancient civilizations rose. The patriarchal societies of ancient Greece and Rome viewed women differently from some societies of past eras. The study of the economic and political status of women, their rights, and their contributions to both these ancient societies reveals how views change throughout history.

During the Age of Enlightenment in the late eighteenth century, Mary Wollstonecraft presented a radical essay, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, that shed light on the largest, underrepresented groups of the time, women. The essay voiced the inequalities women at the time faced and called upon Wollstonecraft’s audience to invoke a revolution for the rights of women. Through her writing, she presented a compelling argument that slowly allowed women to question their “place” in society and demand change to the British social order. While these changes did not happen quickly, her work sparked the feminist movements through its unique message and called upon women to demand equality through the Match Girls Strike and Women’s Suffrage

Many people believe that marriage is important in this day and age, but it holds little significance compared to the importance of marriage in the Victorian era. In the Victorian era women were to get married to a man of the same or a better social status, be good wives, and be a mother to her husband's children. Very few marriages started with love, but a woman's life is not complete without being married. Over time, the role of married women has evolved a great deal and they now have rights and privileges. John Stuart Mill was one of the great thinkers of the Victorian era, and his essay The Subjection of Women tells how few privileges women had and that they were slaves to their husbands. He also says that women are their own people and

She was a mother, a moral and political philosopher, a writer, and a feminist. Mary Wollstonecraft was the ideal image of what represented the push towards modern feminism. Some may even consider her as the founding mother of modern feminism itself. Much of Wollstonecraft’s literature is influenced by her own life experiences. In 1785, Wollstonecraft took on an employment opportunity as a governess. While spending most of her time there, she had a moment of epiphany where she realized that she was not suited for domestic work. Soon after, she returned to London and became a translator and wrote for a well-known publisher and discovered her love of writing. Eventually, years later she was then able to publish her most notable work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is still a very popular book which can be seen as a guide to becoming a better citizen and understanding feminism in a critical context. This essay will argue that Mary Wollstonecraft is still relevant to the feminist cause today as her views portrayed in her book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman are still relatable to many of the feminist issues that currently exist around the world. This essay will do so by comparing how her views in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman can still be used as guiding principles to tackle feminist matters.

Elizabeth Spelman in Woman as Body - Ancient and Contemporary Views addresses how ancient philosophers, specifically Plato, viewed women in society and how that view is impacting the role of women in modern times. At surface value, it seems as if Spelman is placing the blame for the contemporary view of women as nothing more than body on Plato’s advocated ideas of dualism, which equates, most simply, that women are inferior to men. But after completing Spelman’s complete journal, I think that the more pressing problem outlined in Spelman’s argument is how the oppression of women is directly connected to the oppression of groups based on race, class, ability and a variety of other things. Many people approach the problems of sexism separating women from these other groups, but in reality women are apart of all of these groups and therefore have to undergo two or more forms of intertwining oppression.

John Stuart Mill and Aristotle both address the idea of happiness as the goal of human life. They explain that all human action is at the foundation of their moral theories. Mill addresses the Greatest Happiness Principle, which is the greatest amount of pleasure to the least amount of pain. Similarly, Aristotle addresses happiness through the idea of eudaimonia and human flourishing. According to Aristotle, eudaimonia is happiness, it is the state of contemplation that individuals are in when they have reached actualized happiness. Also referred to as happiness or human flourishing, it is the ultimate goal of human beings. Happiness is “living well and acting well.” He explains that once general happiness becomes recognized as the moral standard, natural sentiment will nurture feelings that promote utilitarianism. According to Aristotle, happiness is a state of being. Both Mill and Aristotle agree that in order to attain true happiness, human beings must engage in activities that are distinct to humans and that make them happy. Aristotle’s idea of eudaimonia and human flourishing is a more compelling argument than Mill’s for happiness and the final end because Aristotle explains that the virtues bring human beings to happiness.

Women in classical Athens could not have had an extremely enjoyable experience, if we rely on literary sources concerning the roles of women within the Greek polis. The so-called Athenian democracy only benefited a fraction of the entire population. At least half of this population was female, yet women seem to have had very little influence and few official civic rights. `The position of women...is a subject which has provoked much controversy.'

Mill makes a very strong argument that the position women have in society is not the only possible way to structure societal hierarchy. The reason it seems unnatural to change its structure, he claims, is because it is uncustomary.

A superficial look at these contentions could persuade that what we find in the Republic is an early case of sex balance (and maybe even women 's liberation, a dynamic advancement of ladies ' fairness) in rationality. While truly a portion of the thoughts Plato communicates about ladies would be viewed as astonishing in his day, a nearer investigation of these thoughts uncovers a want to refute ladies by and large by stifling their regenerative limits. The whole treatise on family life in the Republic genuinely challenges any delineation of Plato as a contemporary populist hero. Plato, in the Republic, contends that ladies ought to have the capacity to go up against a similar social parts similarly with men in his optimal state. His thoughts depend on the view that ladies and men have an indistinguishable nature in regard to acting from watchmen of the state, with the exception of that the one is weaker while the other is more grounded.

The role of pleasure in morality has been examined thoroughly throughout the beginning of philosophy and continues to be a questionable issue. With these in-depth examinations, some similar outlooks as well as differing views have been recorded. Many philosophers have dissected this important topic, however I intend to concentrate of the famous works of Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, and John Stuart Mill. After meticulously analyzing each of the above philosophers’ texts, I personally prefer the position of utilitarian and Benthamite, John Stuart Mill. After comparing and contrasting the positions and reasonings of these philosophers, I will demonstrate my own reasons why I have chosen John Stuart Mill as the most established in his theory of the role of pleasure in morality.

Even Plato's radically innovative proposal has its misgivings. His proposal that women participate equally in men's activities and pursuits, devised and elaborated to bring out the best in masculine nature still implies that women could become guardians only by becoming just like men. However, it is Aristotelian conceptions of women's nature that infuse western theory upto the eighteenth century, offering a rationale for the naturalness of patriarchal social arrangements.

In Book 5 of Plato Republic Socrates and Glaucon have discussed that both men and women could become a guardian of a city. Socrates argues that both male and females although different in respect, can both become guardians of a city, just as both could become something else. Socrates points out that the main difference between everyone is that some minds are meant to become a carpenter, while another person is destined to become a doctor. Socrates concludes that here is not a pursuit relevant to city management where it belongs to a man because he is a man or a woman because she is a woman. Equality needs to be promoted, and that women must be able to pursue their virtues, whatever they may be. In the midst of their discussion Socrates presents the possibility that it could be a mistake to assume men and women could do the same job, when they are different in nature. Socrates compares a bald man to a longhaired man and argues that one or the other does not become a doctor or carpenter based on their hair, but by their craft, (454d). Socrates concludes that although men are naturally better then women, there are no pursuits that are relevant to the guardianship of a city. There is no reason that a woman cannot run a city because she is a woman, or a man because he is a man, (456).

The statement that the two sexes are not different in kind but only in degree, woman is the weaker man - always inferior in capacity (Book V, 454e), is problematic in itself. Women are associated with men in all human activities, but that association is not one of equals (Book V, 454e). Everywhere, women are only secondary if at all "women". Remarkably, Plato comes to the conclusion that females are first and foremost human beings, even if decidedly inferior human beings, when evaluated according to their ability to engage in characteristics human activities" (Book V, 454e). In addition, Plato considered the differences among members of the same sex far greater than average differences between the sexes in all the relevant aspects to the guidance of an ideal society" (Bluestone188). Plato intends that the guardian class should be composed of both men and women. He maintains that there is nothing in female nature to prevent women's participation, arguing, "there is no way of life concerned with the management of the city that belongs to a woman because she is a woman or to a men because he is a men, but the various natures are distributed in the same way in both

In this first unit, one of the readings that really caught my attention was John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women. In his essay, Mill’s presents a very compelling argument that the subordination of one sex to another is wrong and that there should be instead, perfect equality amongst the sexes. Having previously studied about gender inequality issues from another class, I have a broad understanding of how and why gender inequality has been perpetuated through various historical, political, and social contexts. Incorporating this knowledge as well as information learned through the readings and lectures, I hope to share my thoughts on the subjection of women and its relationship to slavery in this personal response paper.

“The conduct and manners of women, in fact, evidently prove that their minds are not in a healthy state; for, like the flowers which are planted in too rich a soil, strength and usefulness are sacrificed to beauty; and the flaunting leaves, after having pleased a fastidious eye, fade, disregarded on the stalk, long before the season when they ought to have arrived at maturity” (Wollstonecraft 7). This is a view in which several feminists abide with and can relate to; the idea that women have the wrong intentions and goals for their lives, that they are treated like children and are predestined to act like children, instead of adults. Although the Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft was written in 1972, this