Plato on Women’s Natural Ability: Revisiting Republic V and Timaeus 41e3–44d2 and 86b1–92c3

Abstract Despite the prominent argument for equal educational opportunity for women in Republic V, commentators frequently question Plato’s sincerity, the quality of the case made, or its significance. Undermining confidence in Plato’s advocacy of female equality are derogatory remarks about women in this and other dialogues. Since we take Plato to be sincere in the argument in Republic V, we reconcile his conclusions there about the equal educational opportunity for women with these seemingly problematic remarks by suggesting that the remarks reflect the interlocutors involved in the dialogue and conventional Athenian prejudices of that time rather than ideas that Plato held to be true. We take seriously the observation of Levin 1996, 14, “in none of those passages in which Plato makes derogatory remarks about women does he use phusis to explain why they behave in the ways of which he is critical.” Hence Plato never suggested that women were by nature limited to the position they occupied socially and politically in 5th or 4th century Athens; he understood the difference between the way they were by convention and the way that they could be, in accordance with their nature, were they to develop their natural capacities through education. We examine carefully Plato’s argument for the equal nature of women in Republic V to defend its viability. The provocation is our not finding in the extensive secondary literature a really detailed treatment of the actual argument and appreciation that it is intended as a sound philosophical argument. We then turn to the devolution schemes in Timaeus 41e–44d and 86b–92c, which again touch on the nature of women and appear to counter the position we attribute to Plato, to show that they are really supportive of our account. Both the Republic and Timaeus limit the natural differences between males and females to body-type. Therefore, even relative physical weakness of women’s bodies does not much problematize for Plato that their natural abilities are equal to those of men, where nature in these contexts means suitability to perform certain functions.