This book investigates the Ancient Stoic thinkers’ views on gender and sexuality. A detailed scrutiny of metaphysics, ethics and political philosophy reveals that the Stoic philosophers held an exceptionally equal view of men and women’s rational capacities. In its own time, Stoicism was frequently called ‘ the manly school’ of philosophy, but this volume shows that the Stoics would have also transformed many traditional notions of masculinity. Malin Grahn-Wilder compares the earlier philosophies of Plato and Aristotle to show that the Stoic position often stands out within Ancient philosophy as an exceptionally bold defense of women’s possibilities to achieve the highest form of wisdom and happiness. The work argues that the Stoic metaphysical notion of human being is based on strikingly egalitarian premises, and opens new perspectives to Stoic philosophy on the whole.
Malin Grahn-Wilder
ancient stoics stoicism plato aristotle religion and gender
“Malin Grahn-Wilder's Gender and Sexuality in Stoic Philosophy is an excellent book that provides an even better reason to teach the ancient Stoics. … This is a book that students in philosophy, classics, history, literature, sociology, and religious studies could read, and each would find it useful and enjoyable. Malin Grahn-Wilder has done a huge favor to all of us who teach ancient Greek and Roman philosophy.” (David O'Hara, Hypatia Reviews Online, 2020)
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“Malin Grahn-Wilder's Gender and Sexuality in Stoic Philosophy brings together Stoic ideas on gender and sexuality in biology and metaphysics, and relates them brilliantly to their positions on living well and on personal self-presentation. In the course of this we find fresh thoughts about a wide range of Stoic topics such as erotic love, the sage, education and cosmopolitanism. This is a must-read for anyone interested in Stoicism and ancient philosophy, as well as feminism and gender studies.” (Julia Annas, University of Arizona, USA)
“One of Grahn-Wilder's accomplishments is to follow her chosen thematic not only through various central areas of philosophy, but also within Stoic understanding of the every-day life and human existence, approaching even those with a philosophical mind. She weaves a rich, connected whole from sources both generally recognized as significant, as well as those from the surface more marginal.” (Pauliina Remes, Uppsala University, Sweden)