The Power Of Reason
The Power of Reason
Two great philosophical thinkers of their time argued the nature of a human being through reason, and in this they drew upon sexual differences. The first of which is Immanuel Kant, following after thinkers like Kant is Mary Wollstonecraft, whom poses a counter argument.
In Kant’s, “Of the Distinction of the Beautiful and Sublime in the Interrelations of the Two Sexes,” he categorizes each sex, females are of the beautiful, “fair sex” and men are of the sublime, “noble sex”. Kant justifies his argument by describing the character of a female, for example he says that women care for adornment and decorations, and find interest in things that are pretty, they even “prefer the beautiful to the useful” (77, Kant) Women are of the beautiful because they have a “beautiful understanding” he states, it does not befit a woman to engage in deep meditation, because her “unconstrained charms should show nothing else than a beautiful nature,” (78, Kant), he repeatedly influences what a women ought to do with disregard to what they are capable of, or actually do.
A man’s nature is of the sublime because he engages in difficult tasks and he has a deep, insightful understanding of the world around him, a man shall engage in branches of knowledge like mechanics and geometry Kant states. Kant’s reasoning for the dominance of a male lies on the different characteristics of each sex, his legitimacy is understood when he claims things like, “the purposes of nature are directed still more to ennoble man, by sexual inclination, and likewise still more to beautify woman,” (93, Kant), thus, he gives reason for men and women to be unequal, because through this they compliment each other! Though of course he also states that if a woman tries to engage herself in trying difficulties she will do so poorly, thus a woman is to just be pretty and have a beautiful, sympathetic understanding of things while a man does all...
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