[MD] The Intellectual Level of Quality, according to Mark

[david buchanan]

John said to Mary:
You hit upon a very interesting topic there.  Royce once answered the question in a letter, why in his experience there were so few female philosophers.  He said the problem was not intellectual - women are just as smart as men, but moral.  The female of the species is almost always reluctant to strike out on their own, to challenge authority and reject the social norm.   Probably even truer in the 19th century than now, but I see vestiges of that attitude still.


dmb says:

There are obvious biological distinctions, I don't put much stock in gender differences assigned by the culture. In response to that book, "Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus", I like to say, "Men are from Earth and Women are from Earth, so get over yourself". I think it's better think think of culture as having both masculine and feminine values but that it is the task of each individual, regardless of what equipment you have between your thighs, to find a balanced set of values and apply them as the situation demands. When you look at the culture as a whole, the relative status of men and women is a reflection of the culture's ability to find a balance between masculine and feminine values. When you look at it like that, we can view the fact that women couldn't even vote in the 19th century but now they run for President, sit on the Supreme Court, have become Senators and Representatives and yes there are female philosophers. I've never seen anybody so much as bat an eye at that. 

On the other hand, if what they say is true, that men and women generally employ two completely different kinds of communication styles for completely different reasons, then that would explain why philosophy is still so dominated by men. They say that the masculine style is focused on the content, on the precise meaning being exchanged in communicative act. The feminine style is to focus on the tone and the affective significance. I believe this difference is explained in terms of the evolutionary pressure put on the hunter's need to get a clear picture of what he's up against and on the gatherer's need to maintain social cohesion. In practical terms, this means that most men just want the info right now, whereas women aren't necessarily interested in the exchange of knowledge when they talk so much as they just want to make a connection, they talk just to be with somebody. It's only a generalization and it's really about the various styles of people rather than men and women per se, but with all those qualifications, I think it's true. I think we see various mixtures of those different styles around here.



John's recent complaints about me, for example, could be explained by a clash of the two styles. Where he sees mere antagonism, I see a substantial disagreement on issues of real concern. It's not that the mode of expression is irrelevant to me but it is, admittedly, far less important than the actual issue. On top of that, there is the fact that we've never actually met and we're communicating in public cyberspace through a keyboard. That's not exactly conducive to an intimate, heart to heart. One can only guess at the tone of voice. There is no body language, no facial expression, no chance to catch the other guy's unpremeditated, natural response. Sometimes we can't even tell sarcasm from sincerity. In a forum like this, it just doesn't work to focus on style instead of the content. This doesn't mean we can't talk about anything personal, in which case the content itself is the intimate thing. But actual disagreements and hostile tones are not at all the same thing, even if they often go hand in hand. That's why there can be such a thing as friendly disagreements and why we can sometimes agree with our enemies. 


Sure, we tend to like the people who agree with us but that's just the ego's satisfaction, not the intellect's. Given that this is supposed to be a place to discuss metaphysics, to debate philosophical issues, all this other stuff seems like a distraction. To be honest, I don't really care if that makes me seem unfriendly. The only that matters to me here, is WHAT you say, not how you say it or what a nice guy you are. For all I know, you could be posting from a psych hospital, a prison or a circus. 


  












 		 	   		  
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