Work · Political Philosophy & Ethics (20th–21st c.)
In Spite of Plato
Rereads four female figures of ancient texts – Penelope, a Thracian maidservant, Demeter and Diotima – against the patriarchal order of the philosophical tradition.
Introduction
“In Spite of Plato” appeared in 1990 and was translated into German (1992) and English (1995). Cavarero describes the method as a kind of theft: female figures are taken out of the texts of ancient philosophy and myth and read against the order in which men placed them. Penelope, weaving and unweaving, stands for a time and space of women’s own; the Thracian maidservant of Plato’s “Theaetetus”, who laughs at Thales falling into a well, for a gaze that stays with the visible world; Demeter for the mother’s power over birth; and Diotima, the woman who teaches Socrates about love in the “Symposium”, for a female voice that Plato appropriates. Together they outline a philosophy that begins with birth instead of death. The book is a key text of the philosophy of sexual difference.
Connections
Criticizes
- Symposiumc. 385 BCE · Plato
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