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Unit 4: Aristotle’s Theory of Revolution

seat of inequality, and hierarchy gave rise to the more majestic and important polis, the sphere Notes
of equality.

The family, for Aristotle, was a natural aristocracy where the man had a say on things
that were worthy of his consideration, leaving the rest to the woman. Violation of this
norm within the family would pervert an aristocratic relationship into an oligarchic one,
for self-interest rather than the interest of the community would then become the overriding
concern.

A woman as a mother spent a great part of her youth and time in bearing and rearing children,
unable to enjoy leisure that a man had, and therefore was decisively disadvantaged. Women were
to be excluded from the public realm because their deliberative faculties were inconclusive and
lacked authority. Political life, for Aristotle, required participation by those who were equal both
with regard to leisure time and possessions, for they had to engage themselves in reasoned discourse
about (un)just issues. Women did not have these so they could not play a direct political role.
Using this criterion, he also ruled out slaves and workers. “His concern that the public realm
serves as the arena for the highest human activities (after philosophy) led to his demand for such
an intellectual engagement”.
Interestingly, many of these themes were reiterated by Rousseau in his Emile. Rousseau too
entertained a stereotypical image of women. Since men and women differed sexually their education
would also differ. It was astonishing that even extremely gifted individuals like Aristotle and
Rousseau could not rise above the prevailing prejudices and localism on the gender question.
Aristotle devoted considerable attention to issues of reproduction when he discussed the city of
his dreams. For ensuring the health of the population, he recommended a 20-year gap in marriage,
for a man’s sexual ability began declining at 70, while a woman’s at 50. This gap ensured that one
was not reproductively active when the other had been incapacitated. The ideal age for marriage
in case of women was 18, and for men 37. Aristotle, like Plato, saw marriage as an arrangement for
“the provision of a stock of the healthiest possible bodies for the nurseries of our state”. A mother
provided materials to the child, while a father the rational soul, so it was necessary to take into
account the father’s mental health. He advised women to undertake more physical exercise, for
the child in their wombs would draw from their strength totally ignoring their idle minds, thereby
implying that the growing child in no way benefited from his mother’s mind. Aristotle confused
between women’s reproductive capacity and their sexual urges.
Aristotle did not, like Plato, advocate equality of the sexes. But this did not mean that he did not
accord any role for women. He granted a woman distinct role in society, a position within her
family and the home. It was here that she could demonstrate her unique abilities as a wife, mother
and a homemaker, preserving and stabilizing the family and home, and giving birth to and
educating the young. The woman, though free, was like a slave, for she lacked reason, which was
why she should submit to the superior wisdom of men. While a slave helped in the orderly
functioning of a household, a, woman managed her family and home:
Unlike Plato, Aristotle retained the private realm to which the family belonged, as it
was crucial. for the pursuit of excellence within the community and provided the
foundation of the polis. He warned of conflict, dissolution and chaos when the family
and women were ignored, as in the instance of the city conceived by Socrates and
Plato, or the one that existed in Sparta. It was for this reason that he rejected the
Socratic-Platonic conception as being unnatural and detrimental to the health of the

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