Gender and Sexuality in Stoic Philosophy

Part I        The Body: Gender From Generation to

1.       Introduction<

2.      The Origin of Gender: Myths and Biology

2.1.    Plato's Philosophical Myths of Gender and Sexuality

2.1.1. Genders, Planets, and Lust: Aristophanes' Speech

2.1.2.  Noble Birth without Sex - Phaedrus, Pausanias and Socrates

2.1.3.  Women as Former Vicious Men - Plato's Timaeus

2.2.    When Hot Meets Cold and Form Meets Matter  - Gender and Generation in Aristotle's Biology

2.2.1. Why are Higher Animals Gendered?

2.2.2. Gender and Form: Sameness and Difference

2.2.3.           Aristotelian Metaphysics of Gender

2.2.4. Hot Men and Cold Women

2.3.    Galen on Gender: Scientific, Medical and Philosophical Perspectives

          2.3.1. Two Genders, Four Elements and the Problem of Gender Resemblance

          2.3.2. From Agricultural Analogy to Dual Seed-Theory

          2.3.3. On Cold and Idle Women

3.       Semen, Zeus and the Birth of Cosmos: Gender in Stoic Cosmogony and Cosmology

3.1.    Gender and the Two Principles

3.2.    Fire and Sperm: Generation in a Material World

3.3.    On the Sexual Encounter between Zeus and Hera - a Biological Myth?

3.4.    Sexual Analogies in Stoic Cosmology

4.       The Metaphysical Insignificance of Gender

4.1.    The Stoic Theory of Categories: Gender and Substance

4.2.    Gender and the Qualified: Common and Individual Features

4.3.    The Disposed and the Relatively Disposed: Gender and Relations

4.4.    Reproduction and Rational Capacities:  the Stoic theory of pneuma

4.5.    Stoic Notions of Embryology

4.6.    From Genital Difference to Good Life

5.       Perfumed Men and Bearded Philosophers - The Stoics on Signs of Gender

5.1.    Hair, Prohairesis and Human Flourishing

5.2.    On Hairy Bodies and the Works of Nature

5.3.    The Philosopher's Beard

5.4.    Gendered Signs and Effeminate Vanity - Early and Roman Stoics Compared

6.        Fiery and Cold Natures - Stoic Physiognomics of Gender

6.1.    Beautiful Souls in Beautiful Bodies

6.2.    Seneca on the Elements and Gendered Characteristics

Summary of Part I

PART II character: education of gender and therapy of sexuality

7. Gender and Education from Classic to Hellenistic Thought

7.1 Character as a Philosophical Problem

7.2.    Equal Education, Gendered Characteristics and Eugenic Policies Critical Assessments on Gender in Plato's Republic

7.2.1. On Educability of Men and Women

7.2.3. Philosophers, Lovers and the End of Gender Dimorphism?

7.3.    Aristotle on the Education of Young Men: Habituation of Character and Political Goals

7.3.1.           Aristotle on Childhood and Habituation

7.3.2 Gender, Virtue and the Politics of Education

7.3.3. Female Virtue and Happiness

8.       The Stoics on Equal Educability of Girls and Boys, and the Origin Gendered Characteristics

8.1.    Musonius on Why Girls Should Be Educated

8.2.    Inborn Capacities, Cultural Impact, and the Question Concerning Gendered Characteristics

8.2.1. Non-rationality and Moral Irresponsibility - Stoic Views on Children

8.2.2. Oikeiôsis and the Theory of Preconceptions: Arguments for Equal Educability of Girls and Boys

8.2.3. Gendered Characteristics and Cultural Corruption

9.       To Become Properly Manly - Gender, Happiness and the Figure of the Sage

9.1.    Manly Stoics, Effeminate Epicureans

9.2.    The Sage, Apatheia and the Feminine

9.4.    Genders and Persona

10.     How to Take 'Certain Spasms' Calmly - Sexuality in Stoic Philosophical Therapy

10.1. Making Friends Through Erotic Love

10.2. Sexuality and Inner Freedom

10.4. Philosophical Exercises on Sexuality 2: Abstinence

Summary of Part II

PART III community: Marriage, Family and Human Bonding

11.3.  Cynic Upheavals of Gender and Family Roles

12.     "Holding Women in Common" - Gender in Early Stoic Utopias

12.1.  Stoic Abolishment of Marriage and Other Social Institutions

12.3.  Wives, Pork and Theater Seats - Stoic Views on Women and Common Property

12.4.  Marriage and Non-Marriage, Incest and Virtue - Contradictory and Controversial Elements in Early Stoicism

13.     Is it Possible to Marry and Be Happy? The Later Stoics on Matrimony and Modes of Life

13.1.  Learning to Lose One's Love

13.2.  Not Every Wife is Like Hipparchia - Epictetus on Conjugal and Parental Responsibilities 

13.3.  Marriage as a Natural Way of Life: Partnership and Sociability

13.4.  The Roles of Wife and Husband

13.5.  Should the Wife Stay by her Loom? Gender and the Division of Labor

14.     Gender and Stoic Cosmopolitanism

14.2.  The Importance of the Inner Circle

Summary of Part III

15.     Conclusion