Musonius Rufus, Lectures 3.1

Lecture 3: That women too should study philosophy.

When someone asked him if women too should study philosophy, he began to discourse on the theme that they should, in somewhat the following manner.

Women as well as men, he said, have received from the gods the gift of reason, which we use in our dealings with one another and by which we judge whether a thing is good or bad, right or wrong.

Likewise the female has the same senses as the male; namely sight, hearing, smell, and the others.

Also both have the same parts of the body, and one has nothing more than the other.

Moreover, not men alone, but women too, have a natural inclination toward virtue and the capacity for acquiring it, and it is the nature of women no less than men to be pleased by good and just acts and to reject the opposite of these.

I have become accustomed to thinking very differently than most others, for better or for worse. I do not expect to determine what someone else will think, and I try not to be offended when he expresses his disapproval. Some of this has to do with an eccentric disposition, but most of it comes from the sort of values I have chosen for myself. I am not content to merely follow the current trend, or to embrace the latest “—ism”.

Some people seem quite surprised that Musonius Rufus held what they consider to be such “progressive” views on women, and I usually suggest that common sense is hardly old or new, but simply timeless. I believe it was Coco Chanel who said that “Fashion fades, only style remains the same.”

The regular assumption, of course, is that those in the past were backward and bigoted, and only now, in our better age, have we become so enlightened and fair. I suspect, however, that human nature doesn’t change all that much. There have always been wisdom and ignorance, and there have always been virtue and vice, just mixed together in various ways.

For as long as I can remember, people have been asking me if I am a feminist. I am not sure how to answer, because I am not even sure what the term means to everyone; I have heard so many differing definitions over the years that I can no longer keep track.

Is it about finding what is common and shared to all human beings, regardless of their gender, or is it about continuing to insist on divisions? Does it involve finding ways for all of us to be better, or does it require that someone else remains worse?

Musonius is just pointing to a basic insight about humanity, that for the many variations between people, they still remain people, gifted with reason and will, and made for exactly the same end. Yes, I can consider the accidents, like gender, or race, or age, or preferences, or points of view, and they will only confuse me if I do not remember what is essential beneath them. It’s only justice when it’s universal, only dignity when it’s free from the conditions of circumstance.

Of course there are differences between men and women, at the levels of their minds and bodies, just as there are also differences between all individuals. It would be foolish of me to think that this is all that matters, or that it doesn’t matter at all, or not to see that how it matters depends upon first finding what is common. The degrees exist within the kind.

Both a man and a woman are able to form their own judgments, and thereby to inform their own sense of moral worth.

Both a man and a woman experience the same world, through the same powers of perception.

Both a man and woman possess the same sorts of bodies, each quite capable of meetings the demands of a good life.

Most importantly, both a man and a woman are made for the same purpose, to know and to love, to seek virtue and to avoid vice, and the final merit of either will be completely identical.

Thoughtful and decent folks, men and women alike, from any walk of life, have always understood that the variations of the sexes complement one another, and are never intended to be in conflict with one another. This will only be possible if I first look at the person. Philosophy, as a means to becoming fully human, is everyone’s calling.

Written in 4/1999