Biology is Destiny: The Deficiencies of Women in Aristotle’s Biology and Politics

Abstract

Biology is Destiny:The Deficiencies of Women in Aristotle’s Biology and Politics1 Velvet L. Yates This paper examines the gender stereotypes in Aristotle’s biological works and the Politics with a fresh appreciation of Aristotle’s deliberate incorporation of cultural assumptions into his worldview—a worldview that is shaped by aesthetics as much as by science. Science’s harmonious alignment with culture leads to jarring results, however: Aristotle justifies women’s political subordination on the basis of biological characteristics, a move that meets racism’s basic definition.2 In fact, it constitutes an example of “ur-racism” and is the model for racism in the Politics, where Aristotle depicts Asiatics as natural slaves through their assimilation to women.3 I will first briefly explore the role of cultural bias and aesthetics in modern scientific theories to problematize the assumption that science, ancient or modern, is objective and value neutral. Then I will turn to Aristotle’s biology and Politics, with special attention to the causal link between the [End Page 1] physical and political deficiencies of women presented in these works and how this link informs Aristotle’s theory of natural slavery.4 “BEAUTY IS A SUCCESSFUL CRITERION FOR SELECTING THE RIGHT THEORY”5 A recent study thoroughly discredits any scientific basis for the stereotype of promiscuous males and choosy females, justified for decades as a “natural” outcome of evolutionary biology (B. J. King 2012). It reveals that the 1948 fruit fly experiment that gave rise to the so-called “Bateman principle” was faulty. When the experiment was recreated, it was found that Bateman had misread some of the data, thus throwing into doubt his conclusion that the male reproductive strategy is to mate with many females, while females were more discriminating in their choice of partners. The “Bateman principle,” which continues to be widely used to explain philandering in human males, must be thrown into doubt. As one of the researchers, Patricia Gowaty, observes: “The most important experimental data for the evolutionary justification for the double standard in humans is in question.” Gowaty also asks: “If we failed as a discipline to notice flaws, it makes one wonder, do we notice the flaws in other, more modern studies that also have results consistent with status-quo expectations?” If modern science, with its model of nature as something objective and value neutral, can unwittingly support cultural expectations concerning sex and gender, what views about sex and gender might a scientist have for whom nature was decidedly not objective and value neutral? If the distinction between sex and gender can become blurred for a modern scientist, it is completely meaningless for a scientist who operates in a mental universe that is loaded with values. Aristotle is precisely this sort of scientist, and accepting that his concept of nature (physis) purposely incorporates cultural norms and values is entirely consistent with his own methodology of “saving the appearances (phainomena)” that seeks to vindicate widely held opinions [End Page 2] (endoxa).6 Charlotte Witt argues for a value-laden nature in Aristotle.7 This approach also answers G. E. R. Lloyd’s complaint that Aristotle uses nature in a both descriptive and normative way.8 It furthermore rescues unsavory aspects of Aristotle’s biological and political theories from awkward characterizations by scholars. Sympathetic scholars, by tacitly projecting onto Aristotle the modern construction of nature as objective and value neutral, portray Aristotle’s biology as such except when describing women and natural slaves, at which points Aristotle becomes unaccountably blinded by the prejudices of his own time and culture.9 Hostile scholars depict an agenda-driven Aristotle as “one of the fiercest misogynists of all times.”10 At another extreme, a few scholars deny that Aristotle’s theories are anything but “scientifically” objective.11 With a mental step back to gain perspective, we can appreciate that a value-laden nature forms part of Aristotle’s larger aesthetic quest to find order in the world. Aligning his theories with the prevailing educated opinion or cultural norms (“saving the appearances”) is simply one step in establishing an integrated and harmonious worldview. One notable example in Aristotle’s gynecology is his explanation of women’s paleness...