Philosophy 2077F/G Lecture 2: Laqueur January 14
5 Feb 2019
School
Department
Course
Professor
Phil 2077 Lecture 2 Jan 14
Thomas Laqueur
STILL REFER TO POWERPOINT WHEN STUDYING
• Do not use the word “we” in papers
o Assumes other people agree with you
• Homologous one sex model
o Hierarchy
▪ God is the most perfect
▪ Men are the next most perfect as they resemble god the most
• But only SOME men
▪ Women are the least perfect as they don’t possess the telos (final
purpose), they haven’t reached their fullest form
o You don’t count if you’re a kid, because you’re not fully developed
o People used to think women and men had the same reproductive organs, just in
different locations
o Men have more heat→ if women are too hot we would kill sperm and wouldn’t
be able to reproduce
▪ Friction during sex creates heat, and if we have enough heat they thought
they’d be able to produce sperm and ova to be able to reproduce
o In this video all blood is the same
▪ No difference between menstrual blood and nose bleeds
• Thought that women just got of their blood in a different way
than men
o Thought that women could only conceive with orgasm and pleasure
o They thought that theres a transformation possible
▪ If women exercised enough and they could pop their penis out
▪ But only women could transform to men, and not vice versa (if men got
cold their penis wouldn’t get sucked into them)
o Critique:
▪ scrotum had thin skin, uterus didn’t
▪ clitoris vs shaft
• they both get aroused and erect, but women can’t pee through
their clitoris
▪ can’t push a baby out of a penis
• Divergence Two Sex Model (incommensurability)
o Was a tendency to view women as civilized animals
o Women don’t get aroused as easily and have less sexual pleasure/desire OR at
least can better control it than men
o Modesty and compassion as natural results of female reproductive anatomy
