more on this theme     |     more from this text

Single Idea 1477

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / j. Ethics by convention ]

Full Idea

Manliness is not a natural human attribute, otherwise women would be just as brave. It is due to pressure from laws, and this pressure has no free will, but is a slave of convention and criticism.

Clarification

'Law' is the Greek word 'nomos', which also translates as 'convention'

Gist of Idea

Being manly and brave is the result of convention, not of human nature

Source

Plutarch (64: Gryllus - on Rationality in Animals [c.85], 988c)

Book Ref

Plutarch: 'Essays', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [Penguin 1992], p.389

A Reaction

This is the first glimmerings of seeing gender as a cultural creation, rather than as a fact. Presumably he takes the same view of some of the supposed feminine virtues.

The 16 ideas from Plutarch

5957 Absurd superstitions make people atheist, not disharmony in nature [Plutarch]
5958 The sun is always bright; it doesn't become bright when it emerges [Plutarch]
1477 Being manly and brave is the result of convention, not of human nature [Plutarch]
1479 Animals have not been led into homosexuality, because they value pleasure very little [Plutarch]
1478 Animals don't value pleasure, as they cease sexual intercourse after impregnation [Plutarch]
5960 When the soul is intelligent and harmonious, it is part of god and derives from god [Plutarch]
5963 Some say emotion is a sort of reason, and others say virtue concerns emotion [Plutarch]
5974 People report seeing through rocks, or over the horizon, or impossibly small works [Plutarch]
5948 The good life involves social participation, loyalty, temperance and honesty [Plutarch]
5950 If only atoms exist, how do qualities arise when the atoms come together? [Plutarch]
5951 If atoms have no qualities, they cannot possibly produce a mind [Plutarch]
5952 Rather than being the whole soul, maybe I am its chief part? [Plutarch]
5955 No one will ever find a city that lacks religious practices [Plutarch]
20796 Action needs an affinity for a presentation, and an impulse toward the affinity [Plutarch]
5959 Some philosophers say the soul is light [Plutarch]
1212 Replacing timbers on Theseus' ship was the classic illustration of the problem of growth and change [Plutarch]