11/23/15

1

1

PHIL111: Philosophy, Sex, and Thinking

4. Medieval Stirrers (1) Theological background

Hildegard of Bingen

2

Some historical developments •  Rise of the Roman Empire; conquest of

Greece completed 31 BCE •  c. 4 BCE Birth of Jesus of Nazareth •  c. 35 CE Conversion of Saul/Paul;

Christianity -> non-Jewish centres •  c. 65 CE Death of St. Paul in Rome •  Growth of Christian Church; absorption

of philosophical ideas from Greeks •  Some parallel developments in Jewish

intellectual thought

3

Some influential figures •  Philo of Alexandria (13BCE-54CE):

Jewish philosopher in Greek settlement of Alexandria in North Egypt - used Greek philosophy to interpret Jewish Bible

•  Augustine (354-430CE): Bishop of Hippo (now in Algeria); influenced in youth by Manicheeism and Neoplatonism; conversion -> ardent defender of Christian doctrine

4

Philo of Alexandria ‘Why does the woman first touch the tree and

eat of its fruit, and afterwards the man also take of it? … It was fitting that man should rule over immortality and everything good, but woman over death and everything vile. In the allegorical sense, however, woman is a symbol of sense, and man, of mind. Now of necessity sense comes into contact with the sense-perceptible; and by the participation of sense, things pass into the mind …’

(Questions and Answers on Genesis, Bk 1, 37)

11/23/15

2

5

Philo on sex in the soul

‘There is in the soul a male and female element just as there is in families, the male corresponding to the men, the female to the women. The male soul assigns itself to God alone as the Father and Maker of the Universe … The female clings to all that is born and perishes; it stretches out its faculties like a hand to catch blindly at what comes in its way, and gives the clasp of friendship to the world of created things …'

(Special Laws I, 37) 6

Philo on the sexes ‘The soul has, as it were, a dwelling, partly men’s

quarters, partly women’s quarters. Now for the men there is a place where properly dwell the masculine thoughts (that are) wise, sound, just, prudent, pious, filled with freedom and boldness, and kind to wisdom. And the women’s quarters are a place where womanly opinions go about and dwell, being followers of the female sex. And the female sex is irrational and akin to bestial passions, fear, sorrow, pleasure and desire, from which ensue incurable weaknesses and indescribable diseases.’

(Questions and Answers on Genesis, Bk IV, 15)

7

St. Augustine of Hippo on the sexes

‘You created man male and female, but in your spiritual grace, they are as one. Your grace no more discriminates between them according to their sex than it draws distinction between Jew and Greek or slave and freeman.’

(Confessions, Bk XII, 23)

8

Augustine on flesh and spirit

‘Flesh … stands for the wife, similarly spirit sometimes stands for the husband. Why? Because one governs and the other is governed, one ought to command and the other to serve.

(Homily on St. John’s Gospel)

11/23/15

3

9

Augustine again ‘And as in man’s soul there is one

element which rules and directs and another that is subject and obeys, so in the corporeal realm woman was made for man. In her mind and rational understanding she is of equal nature with the male, but in the gender of her body she is subjected to that of the male - much as the appetite for action is subjected to the reasoning mind’s concern that the action should be right.’

(Confessions, Bk XIII, 32) 10

Upshot for Medieval Sexology

A mixed heritage of sex-polarity, sex-complementarity, and sex-unity theories (see P. Allen, The Concept of Woman Vol 1, esp. pp. 213-236)

11

Hildegard of Bingen •  Born 1098, Bermersheim,

Germany

•  Entered hermitage in teens •  Became abbess of female

Benedictine community at 38

•  Established independent community near Bingen 1150

•  Preaching tours 1158-70

•  Died 1179, aged 81.

•  Visions from early age

12

‘Breaking the mould’

1. By speaking out in the church as a woman, despite Biblical prohibition –>

11/23/15

4

13

‘And I heard the voice saying to me from the … living fire: “O you who are wretched earth and, as a woman, untaught in all learning of earthly teachers and unable to read literature with philosophical understanding, you are nonetheless touched by My light, which kindles in you an inner fire like a burning sun; cry out and relate and write these My mysteries that you see and hear in mystical visions. So do not be timid, but say those things you understand in the Spirit as I speak them through you; so that those who should have shown My people righteousness … may be ashamed. Therefore, O diffident mind, who are taught inwardly by mystical inspiration, though because of Eve’s transgression you are trodden on by the masculine sex, speak of that fiery work this sure vision has shown you”.’ (Scivias, Bk 2, Vision 1)

14

‘Breaking the mould’

1. By speaking out in the church as a woman, despite Biblical prohibition

2. By promoting idea of feminine as import-ant aspect of the Divine (Holy Wisdom, Love Divine, Knowledge of God) –>

15

Divine Wisdom ‘On top of this dome you see a very beautiful figure standing. This is to say that this figure was in the Most High Father, giving counsel in the formation of all creatures made in heaven and on earth; so that she is the great ornament of God and the broad stairway of all the other virtues that live in Him, joined in sweet embrace … And this figure represents the Wisdom of God, for through her, all things are created and ruled by God.’ (Scivias, Bk 3, Vision 9)

Sapientia (Sophia), Wisdom of God

One of Hildegard’s illuminations – Divine Wisdom as female figure enclosing human beings in her arms.

16

11/23/15

5

17

Knowledge of God ‘And this image signifies the knowledge

of God; for she oversees all people and all things in heaven and earth. And she is so bright and glorious that you cannot look at her face or her garments for the splendour with which she shines. For she is terrible with the terror of the avenging lightning, and gentle with the goodness of the bright sun …’

(Scivias Bk 3, Vision 4)

Hildegard illumination

•  Cosmic egg – if the cosmos is an egg, what could this imply about the nature of its source?

18

19

The Fall ‘Eve – whose soul was innocent, for she had

been raised out of innocent Adam, bearing in her body the whole multitude of the human race … was invaded by the Devil through the seduction of the serpent for her own downfall. Why was this? Because he knew that the susceptibility of the woman would be more easily conquered than the strength of the man; and he saw that Adam burned so vehemently in his holy love for Eve that if he, the Devil, conquered Eve, Adam would do whatever she said to him.’

(Scivias Book 1, Vision 2, §10) 20

‘Breaking the mould’

1. By speaking out in the church as a woman, despite Biblical prohibition

2. By promoting idea of feminine as import-ant aspect of the Divine (Holy Wisdom, Love Divine, Knowledge of God)

3. By revising conventional theories about male and female physiology and psychology –>

11/23/15

6

21

The 4 elements •  Fire, Air, Earth, Water

•  Aristotle associated fire and air (warm elements) with ‘male’; earth and water (cold elements) with ‘female’ (Allen, pp.93-95)

•  Hildegard associated earth with male (Adam made from clay, works the earth); air with female (female more airy, taken from male - Cause et Cure, p.43; Allen, pp. 296-7) 22

Hildegard on Adam and Eve

‘God made the human being from clay. But the man was transformed from clay to flesh and therefore he is the particular cause of and the ruler over created things. He works the earth so that it brings forth fruit. There is strength in his bones, blood vessels and flesh. His head is whole and his skin is thick. He has his ‘reproductive’ strength within him and produces semen as the sun brings forth light. >>

23

‘Woman, however, was not transformed because taken from flesh she remained flesh. Therefore a more artful work was given to her to be done with her hands. She is airy, as it were. She carries the child in her womb and gives birth to it. She has a divided head and thin skin, so that the child she is carrying in her womb can get air.’

(Cause et Cure, p.43) 24

Changing the ‘sex’ of the elements

Aristotle

Fire - Male Air - Male Water - Female Earth - Female

Hildegard

Fire - Male Air - Female Water - Female Earth - Male

11/23/15

7

25

Procreation

•  Strong semen + proper affection in both –> boy, intelligent and virtuous

•  Strong semen + proper affection in man only –> boy, weak, non-virtuous

•  Thin semen + proper affection in both –> girl, virtuous

•  Thin semen + proper affection in one only –> girl

•  Strong semen + no affection in either –> boy, bitter

•  Thin semen + no affection in either –> girl, bitter (CC, pp.51-2) 26

Man’s love, woman’s love

‘[Man’s] love with its blazing heat, compared with woman’s love is like the fire of blazing mountains that is difficult to extinguish compared with a wood fire that is easily extinguished. Woman’s love compared with man’s love is like sweet warmth proceeding from the sun …’ (CC, p.53)

Sex and reason A male who has sex before 15 ‘will easily

become unreasonable or empty- headed, his knowledge will diminish, he will readily develop an unsound and intemperate disposition – all this because he has not yet reached sufficient maturity to emit mature semen’. (CC p.55)

27

If a girl has sex before 14, ‘she will easily lose her sense of decency and modesty and understanding of what is appropriate – all on account of immature pleasure and freedom’. (CC p.55) 28

The 4 humours •  Sanguine (blood), Phlegmatic (phlegm),

Choleric (yellow bile), Melancholic (black bile)

•  Previously associated assexually with personality types

•  Hildegard provides separate classifi-cations for men and women, taking account of physiological sex differences

(CC, pp.56-65)

11/23/15

8

29

Personality types: Choleric •  Men: intelligent, virile and passionately

interested in sex with women • Women: intelligent and kind, heavy menstrual

flow, faithful as wives but appearance not attractive to men

Sanguine: • Men: lovely complexion, self-controlled in sex;

honourable and harmonious with women; calm when celibate

• Women: sometimes plump; clear complexion, capable of self-control; fertile; need to be with men 30

Personality types: Melancholic •  Men: fatty brain; dense black blood; bitter;

greedy; lusty; unrestrained with women

•  Women: haggard flesh, bluish blood, healthier unmarried, sometimes infertile

Phlegmatic •  Men: muddy complexion, soft flesh, strong,

‘all talk’, tend to be impotent, not envious, mentally slow, not virile

•  Women: not fleshy, severe expression, industrious, virile mind, moderate menstrual flow, fertile, attractive to men

31

Rationality and hair ‘That human beings are not hairy stems from

their rationality. Because in the place of hair and feathers they have rationality with which they cover themselves and fly wherever they want to. But that the male has a beard and more hair on his body than a woman is because the male is formed from earth and has greater strength and warmth and is everywhere more active than woman … But woman is without a beard because she is formed from the flesh of man and is subordinate to man and lives in greater quiet. Thus reptiles too, that are born from the earth, are not hairy …’ (CC, p.51) 32

Is all this philosophical?

• She revises earlier theories of physics, physiology and psychology that either denigrate female or treat male as paradigm of species

• Her theories of conception and of the humours are inductive - reasoning from examples to general principles

• She offers alternative explanations of authoritative scriptural texts.

• Hildegard is a systematic thinker!

11/23/15

9

33

What about sex and thinking? •  Differences within the sexes are just as

important as differences between the sexes

•  No suggestion that overall one sex is less intelligent than the other

•  Rather deterministic view - virtue and intelligence in child depend on quality of parental affection at conception

•  Sex before full maturity diminishes reason and knowledge!

To do this week •  Read Hildegard reading, ready for

discussion at Wednesday lecture •  Read Christine de Pizan readings, and

‘Romance of the Rose’ reading, for tutorial on Wednesday afternoon

•  Submit response to ‘Male and Female Brain’ reading by end of Wednesday

•  Decide on your essay topic and start planning and reading

34