The moral sex : woman's nature in the French Enlightenment / Lieselotte Steinbrügge ; translated by Pamela E. Selwyn.

By: Steinbrügge, Lieselotte, 1953- [author]
Contributor(s): Selwyn, Pamela E [translator]
Language: English Original language: German Publisher: New York : Oxford University Press, 1995Description: x, 157 pages ; 22 cmContent type: text Media type: unmediated Carrier type: volumeISBN: 0195094921 (hbk. : acidfree paper); 019509493X (pbk. : acidfree paper)Uniform titles: Moralische Geschlecht. English Subject(s): Women -- Psychology -- History -- 18th century | Women and literature -- France -- History -- 18th century | Women -- France -- Conduct of life -- History -- 18th centuryDDC classification: 305.40944 LOC classification: HQ1210 | .S7413 1995Online resources: Publisher description
Contents:
Introduction -- Reason has no sex -- Dividing the human race: the anthropological definition of woman in the Encyclopedie -- The sensual turning point: Antoine-Leonard Thomas and Pierre Roussel -- The sexualization of female existence -- The historical and moral-philosophical dimensions of the feminine: Jean-Jacques Rousseau -- The female reduced to natural instinct: Choderlos de Laclos -- Female sensibility -- Conclusion.
Summary: "How was the nature of women redefined and debated during the French Enlightenment? Instead of treating the Enlightenment in the usual manner, as a challenge to orthodox ideas and social conventions, Lieselotte Steinbrugge interprets it as a deviation from a position staked out in the seventeenth century, namely, "the mind has no sex."" "The division of the human being into two unequal sexes was by no means the work of the counter-Enlightenment, argues Steinbrugge. Rather, it occurred with genuinely Enlightenment arguments. The very concept of nature upon which equality was supposed to rest was used to legitimate the notion that women were less capable than men of rational thought and action." "This study shows that the emphasis on women's closeness to nature, and its contrast to enlightened masculine rationality, was associated with the social function of reason and the accompanying moral philosophical definition of sentiment. Because of their supposedly greater emotionality, women seemed predestined to represent pure human compassion. They became the moral sex.
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SUBJECT REFERENCE 		305.40944 St34 1992 (Browse shelf) Available CL-27674
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Includes index

Includes bibliographical references (p. 145-153)

Introduction --
Reason has no sex --
Dividing the human race: the anthropological definition of woman in the Encyclopedie --
The sensual turning point: Antoine-Leonard Thomas and Pierre Roussel --
The sexualization of female existence --
The historical and moral-philosophical dimensions of the feminine: Jean-Jacques Rousseau --
The female reduced to natural instinct: Choderlos de Laclos --
Female sensibility --
Conclusion.


"How was the nature of women redefined and debated during the French Enlightenment? Instead of treating the Enlightenment in the usual manner, as a challenge to orthodox ideas and social conventions, Lieselotte Steinbrugge interprets it as a deviation from a position staked out in the seventeenth century, namely, "the mind has no sex."" "The division of the human being into two unequal sexes was by no means the work of the counter-Enlightenment, argues Steinbrugge. Rather, it occurred with genuinely Enlightenment arguments. The very concept of nature upon which equality was supposed to rest was used to legitimate the notion that women were less capable than men of rational thought and action." "This study shows that the emphasis on women's closeness to nature, and its contrast to enlightened masculine rationality, was associated with the social function of reason and the accompanying moral philosophical definition of sentiment. Because of their supposedly greater emotionality, women seemed predestined to represent pure human compassion. They became the moral sex.

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