Plato, Lingua Latine, and Female Dominance

Plato argued in his Allegory of the Cave, of the material world as being the misshapened shadows of objects produced by a flame. He speaks of an idea called the Form, which is intangible and may only be seen through a skilled mental eye that must adjust to the brightness of the world outside of the cave. The Forms are abstract, such as our souls are before they descend into our mortal bodies, and so our souls know these abstract Forms prior and after its existence in the material world.

The latin language, as well as many other languages, bear a difference in gender within their lexicons. Having only studied latin in depth, I will only use this as a resource in my argumentation. The feminine gender of words is linked most closely to the abstract concepts such as courage, strength (non-physical), friendship, etc. It is also used to describe feminine objects such as woman and female creatures. This creates a link between the female and the abstract, an idea many would not disagree with. The abstractness of woman has been pondered by many over the centuries.

To link these two thoughts together produces a very interesting result. Woman, being feminine and thus abstract, has a direct correlation between Plato's abstract Forms. Plato praised his Forms as the most dominant of all levels of knowledge, and thus if not us, then the Platonists, should esteem the female population.

October 17, 2002 (written)