Philosophy's gender?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jim_Baur
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
J

Jim_Baur

Guest
In the ancient worlds, did philosophy have a “gender”?

THANKS!

In the Enlightenment, a lady was used for reason.

Did the Greeks or other cultures before Christ see wisdom or philosophy or reason as a lady?

THANKS!
 
It used to be that there were many wise women, but they began to lose themselves too much in what they did and people, especially mothers began to distrust them.

Philosophy has no gender. It simply is and everybody has it, whether they realize it or not.
 
In Gnostic thought, “knowledge” was often personified in female form. I don’t know if you would coun’t knowledge as philosophy, though.
 
love4all

I hold the idea that Adam’s (human’s wisdom) is Eve in the Creation Account starting in the second chapter of Genesis.

Just an idea!

Our Wisdom, from God, is the bride, and Jesus is the Groom.

I have not read that in any authors but am investigating the idea or reality.

THANKS!
 
Jim_Baur said:
love4all

I hold the idea that Adam’s (human’s wisdom) is Eve in the Creation Account starting in the second chapter of Genesis.

Just an idea!

Our Wisdom, from God, is the bride, and Jesus is the Groom.

I have not read that in any authors but am investigating the idea or reality.

THANKS!
Click to expand...
You bring up an interesting idea about Adam and Eve. My personal view is that Adam’s province was Wisdom, Eve’s, Knowledge. That is my view of the complementarity of man and woman. It explains a few things. For one, there is the idea in a lot of people that, for example, women are much better at multi-tasking than men, whereas men are better at concentrating their attention on a single task. This points, perhaps, to the wideness of knowledge and the single-pointedness of wisdom. It also explains Eve’s reaction to the Serpent’s suggestion. She saw that the Tree was desirable for the knowledge it could give. The Serpent was able to tempt Eve, because the Tree was a Tree of Knowledge, whereas Adam, in Wisdom, only knew one thing about the Tree — don’t touch it. But Adam didn’t touch the Tree, he only are the fruit that his wife gave him from it. So the Serpent tricked them both, by pitting Eve’s desire for knowledge, natural to her, against Adam’s wisdom, natural to him. Just my take on it.
 
Love4All said:
Wisdom is not a woman named “Sophia.” That is human reason exalting itself beyond its station, i.e. heretical Gnosticism.
Click to expand...
Human reason is not exalting itself beyond its station when referring to wisdom as “sophia.” Be careful, “sophia” is the literal Greek word for “wisdom.” We can very much praise God’s Wisdom by referring to it as “sophia” as long as we acknowledge that it is not an entity separate from God, and as long as we attribute it to its infallible creator. In such instances, we’d be merely praising God using one of the numerous tongues He has gifted the human race with.
 
Human wisdom and divine wisdom are different.

Human wisdom has to be subordinate to divine wisdom; this is for those that believe.

Now that we bring this us, this has moved into faith. I apologize for those that want to hold this thread as pure or only philosophy.

I began this thread because I needed the knowledge of philosophers.

THANKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
 
I suspect Philosophy and Wisdom is often personified as female because men… well… 😉
 
raulpnt said:
Human reason is not exalting itself beyond its station when referring to wisdom as “sophia.” Be careful, “sophia” is the literal Greek word for “wisdom.” We can very much praise God’s Wisdom by referring to it as “sophia” as long as we acknowledge that it is not an entity separate from God, and as long as we attribute it to its infallible creator. In such instances, we’d be merely praising God using one of the numerous tongues He has gifted the human race with.
Click to expand...
Generally, those who call Wisdom “Sophia” are kind of creating an idol of sorts. It is like the Freemasons in New Haven putting statues in Woolsey Hall of “Courage,” and “Hope,” or whatever they are. The idea is that you can take a characteristic and personify it, and then name the personification and talk meaningfully about it. But there is no such god as “Courage.” Similarly, there is no goddess, “Sophia.”

If we truly wish to be philosophers, that has to mean Love of Wisdom, as that is the root meaning of the word. Wisdom is with God, for all eternity. Love of Wisdom leads one to love of God.

You say, “as long as we acknowledge that it is not an entity separate from God, and as long as we attribute it to its infallible creator. In such instances, we’d be merely praising God using one of the numerous tongues He has gifted the human race with.”

Are you saying Wisdom is one of God’s attributes, or that Wisdom is created? You did refer to Wisdom’s Creator.

God is Eternal Wisdom, and, God created eternal Wisdom. There is a difference between creature and Creator. There is a difference between God and God’s created Wisdom. There is no “Sophia.”
 
Jim_Baur said:
Human wisdom and divine wisdom are different.

Human wisdom has to be subordinate to divine wisdom; this is for those that believe.

Now that we bring this us, this has moved into faith. I apologize for those that want to hold this thread as pure or only philosophy.

I began this thread because I needed the knowledge of philosophers.

THANKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Click to expand...
Do you not yet have a sufficient answer to the question of “Philosophy’s gender?”
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top