To begin with, the most notable comparison that needs to be made is the comparison between Poulain and Descartes. Poulain was deeply influenced by Descartes. In the early stage of Poulain’s life, he was working in a church, as most of his contemporaries did. However, when he heard a Cartesian lecture, he was completely convinced. Poulain believed Descartes possessed reason and good sense, which drove Poulain to the path of philosophy. In general, Poulain’s work was influenced by Descartes mainly in two perspectives, methodologically and metaphysically.
Firstly, Poulain adopts Descartes’ way of doubt to construct his argument. Poulain proposes the method of argumentation as the “rule of truth”. “The best things that could happen to people who are struggling to acquire new knowledge is to question whether the traditional education they have received is valid and then to try to seek out the truth for themselves. They quickly come to realize that we are full of prejudices and that we have to make a real effort to get rid of them before we can hope to come to a clear and distinct understanding” (Poulain, 49). Precisely, Poulain claims that we should not accept anything as true unless there is infallible evidence to prove that idea. This method of argumentation is the same as the Cartesian way of doubt presented in Meditation. At the beginning of the Meditation, Descartes overthrows every belief that is not absolutely certain and tries to search for what can be known for sure.
Apart from the similarity of methodology between Poulain and Descartes, Poulain’s belief about the mind is in some way similar to Descartes’s dualism. Poulain claims that people’s minds are the same across all human beings. He claims that if we consider the mind itself, they are the same across all human beings, so there should be no difference between women’s minds and men’s minds. Instead of distinguishing mind and body separately clearly, Poulain considers the union of mind and body in order to provide evidence that men and women should be considered equally. “A woman’s mind is joined to her body, like a man’s, by God himself, and according to the same laws. Feelings, passions, and the will maintain this union, and since the mind functions no differently in one sex than in the other, it is capable of the same things in both” (Poulain, 82). In this statement, Poulain implicates that people’s minds and bodies are separate and they combine together as a union. Descartes raises a similar notion in the Sixth Meditation, in which he claims that “what God has bestowed on me as a combination of mind and body” (Descartes, 57). The difference here is that Descartes goes on to explain the distinction between mind and body. On the contrary, Poulain keeps utilizing the mind and body union to argue for equal learning capability between men and women.
Apart from the similarity of the method of argument between Poulain and Descartes, there is a similarity between Marie Le Jars de Gournay and Poulain’s in regard to the content of the argument for the equality between two sexes. Gournay and Poulain were born in the same period of time when women were forced to stay in the house and be away from society and education. Both Poulain and Gournay made assertions that the discrimination against women was caused by prejudices and women were as competent in learning as the men did.
As we discussed before, in Poulain’s On the Equality of the Two Sexes, Poulain claims that women have the same aptitude for learning as men. Even more, women are more capable in some aspects of such as women are more aware of the art of speaking so that women can express an idea more properly. The main-stream belief at that time that women are banned from learning and voicing out their opinions are derived from the arrogance of the men rather than a deliberate and scientific consideration. This acknowledgment of women’s ability leads to Poulain’s conclusion that women should be allowed to education and play important role in society such as working.
Similarly, Gournay raises a similar argument urging women’s equal rights of access to education and public offices. In Equality Between Men and Women, Gournay starts the argument by claiming the roots of subordination of women to men is based solely on prejudices. The sharp difference between the accomplishments to the society between to sexes is due to the lack of education for women. If women were given access to education, women are capable of contributing similar achievements to society or even more contribution. Similar to Poulain’s claim of the men being arrogant, Gournay raises a similar account in The Ladies Complaint. She criticizes some men lack the genuine ability to participate in an intellectual debate. What they do is complicating conversations using logical tricks and therefore, confuses the opponents. Many of them “To win the argument, it is enough for these men to dodge the challenge, and their gain in glory is proportionate to their wish to avoid the effort involved in a genuine contest” (Gournay, 77). Additionally, she argues that it was the men’s prejudices alone has caused the unreasonable discrimination of women’s value. “If a man is to win the esteem of the common people, all he needs to do is despise one person after another and to swear that, in his own estimation, he is the best in the world” (Gournay, 77). Together with the previous point, Gournay claims that men are arrogant and that prejudice is the cause of women’s subordination in society. Compared to Poulain’s argument, he makes a similar statement that since men are physically stronger, their arrogance prompts them to think that they are superior in many aspects to women. Towards the end of their arguments, both philosophers urge men and society to give women access to education and give women the opportunity to demonstrate that they possess the ability to learn and to hold places in public offices and make contributions to society.
Bibliography
de Gournay, Marie le Jars. “The Ladies’ Complaint (1641).” Apology for the Woman Writing and Other Works. University of Chicago Press, 2007. 97-106.
de La Barre, François Poulain. The Equality of the Two Sexes. E. Mellen Press, 1989.
de La Barre, François Poulain. On the Education of Ladies. E. Mellen Press, 1989.
Descartes, René, Elizabeth Sanderson Haldane, and George Robert Thomson Ross. Meditations on first philosophy in focus. Psychology Press, 1993.
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