"Nothing can be more absurd than the practice that prevails in our country of men and women not following the same pursuits with all their strengths and with one mind, for thus, the state instead of being whole is reduced to half"
About this Quote
Plato isn’t merely “ahead of his time” on gender; he’s doing something more characteristically Platonic: treating the state like a single organism and calling anything that splits its capacities a kind of self-mutilation. The word “absurd” lands with philosophical contempt. For Plato, custom is often just error with good branding. If a society trains half its citizens to be ornamental, domestic, or politically silent, it’s not only unjust - it’s irrational statecraft.
The intent is pragmatic as much as ethical. In the Republic, the guardian class is built on specialization and education aimed at producing virtue and competence. Excluding women from the same “pursuits” (training, governance, war, philosophical formation) isn’t a moral nicety; it’s a direct hit to the state’s power and coherence. “One mind” is the giveaway: Plato’s political fantasy is unity so tight it borders on eerie, with shared aims, shared discipline, and minimal friction from private interests. Gender separation becomes another form of faction, and faction is what Plato fears most.
The subtext is also a rebuke to Athens, where civic identity and public life were intensely male. Plato’s proposal doesn’t emerge from modern ideas of individual self-expression; it comes from his obsession with ordering the polis correctly. Women’s inclusion is justified not by rights but by function: talent is scarce, virtue must be cultivated wherever it appears, and a city that wastes aptitude is, in his terms, literally only half alive.
The intent is pragmatic as much as ethical. In the Republic, the guardian class is built on specialization and education aimed at producing virtue and competence. Excluding women from the same “pursuits” (training, governance, war, philosophical formation) isn’t a moral nicety; it’s a direct hit to the state’s power and coherence. “One mind” is the giveaway: Plato’s political fantasy is unity so tight it borders on eerie, with shared aims, shared discipline, and minimal friction from private interests. Gender separation becomes another form of faction, and faction is what Plato fears most.
The subtext is also a rebuke to Athens, where civic identity and public life were intensely male. Plato’s proposal doesn’t emerge from modern ideas of individual self-expression; it comes from his obsession with ordering the polis correctly. Women’s inclusion is justified not by rights but by function: talent is scarce, virtue must be cultivated wherever it appears, and a city that wastes aptitude is, in his terms, literally only half alive.
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
|---|---|
| Source | Plato, Republic, Book V (Benjamin Jowett translation) — passage on women sharing guardians' pursuits; often rendered 'the state instead of being whole is reduced to half'. |
More Quotes by Plato
Add to List
