Could the idea of opposites in Greek philosophy have caused male-dominated society?
The idea of opposites was a fundamental way of scrutinizing the way reality was within the minds of the ancient Greeks. Empedocles for instance spoke of the two forces, love and strife, one that brings things together and one that tears things apart. This view influenced other Greek philosophers, and the idea of a duality within our reality became quite apparent and believed. This perspective seems very reflective of their society and the way they viewed women and other people who were not acclaimed citizens.
This is a list of commonly considered opposites in ancient Greek philosophy:
Hot – Cold
Dry – Wet
Limit – Unlimited
Odd – Even
Right – Left
One – Plurality
Male – Female
Resting – Moving
Straight – Crooked
Light – Darkness
Good – Bad
Square – Oblong
The two columns were often associated together such as the left side pertaining to light and goodness. However, we can see that females would be clumped together with the more negative associations such as badness, coldness, and darkness. This probably started to put in place within their society an assumption that men were the stronger half, for they in the Greek perspective, were more fond of logical thinking as opposed to emotional thinking. In Plato’s Republic he talks of his society saying, “we pride ourselves if we are able to keep quiet and master our grief, for we think that this is the manly thing to do and that the behavior we praised before [emotional suffering] is womanish.” This clearly distinguishes the idea of logical and emotional, which seems to be associated with men and women. This is an interesting point to think of as much of the ancient Western philosophy would have tolls on the way Christianity was perceived and how it would effect the course of society and gender roles for centuries to come.
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