Women on Love — Idealization in the Philosophies of Diotima (Symposium) and Murasaki Shikibu (The Tale of Genji) (original) (raw)

2017, Philosophy East and West

Although we have already entered the twenty-first century, the sexist assumptions that undermine the professional status of women philosophers have not been fully exorcised. Notwithstanding Mary Ellen Waithe's groundbreaking multi-volume A History of Women Philosophers (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1989-1995), doubts continue to arise over whether there has been or can be such a phenomenon as a woman philosopher. The very concept remains mired in stereotypical images. Auguste Rodin's famous statue of a naked male, generally referred to as "The Thinker," the self-chosen mascot of many philosophers, is still dramatically posed outside Columbia University's Philosophy Hall. In fact it originally was named "The Poet," possibly representing Dante poised at the Gates of Hell, part of a commission from the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris to grace the museum entrance. Myth has become reality in the public consciousness. No less prestigious a source than the New York Times has revealed a streak of implicit bias in a description of "the way a philosopher ought to look: pink-faced, whitebearded, rumpled, squinty," which summarily excludes women from philosophy, unless they cultivate facial hair. 1 In addition to exploring an intrinsically philosophical issue, this essay seeks to challenge gender-based exclusion by securing a place for women thinkers in the rarefied pantheon of philosophy by exploring two compelling examples of women engaged in philosophizing. Their shared topic is love, and more specifically the intertwining of love and beauty. For those who might be tempted to trivialize this topic, we should note that Plato's Socrates proclaims "to understand nothing but matters of love [ta erotika]" (177). 2 David L. Roochnik argues that Plato posited an inextricable connection between eros and logos/discourse: "The origin of logos is in the human subject, understood as an erotic agent, not in the world." 3 Moreover, the rarest and most valued discourse is that of the philosopher, the lover of wisdom. Hence, the philosophy of love can be considered the very core of philosophy, the sine qua non of philosophical discourse. Since there are far fewer texts written by women compared to works by male writers, we must be somewhat flexible in identifying potential 1314