Hi everyone, The University of Sydney Philosophy Seminar Series returns for Semester 2 this Wednesday. This week’s speaker is Michaela Manson (Monash University).
The title of Michaela’s talk is “Equality and Elitism: Early Modern Women and the Philosophy of Friendship”. Here’s the abstract for Michaela’s talk: A significant condition for Aristotleian character friendship is that potential friends both be virtuous. Implicit in this is a kind of equality claim, namely that such would-be friends are sufficiently similar or equal in respect of virtue. However, subsequent philosophers of friendship from Cicero to Nehemas have rejected the Aristotleian conception as too demanding; ordinary observation seems to yield countless counterexamples to the effect that two (or more) people can be genuine friends despite not being perfectly virtuous or even equals in other relevant respects. Indeed to claim that true friendship is the unique province of the virtuous is liable to invite a charge of elitism. This charge is especially forceful when considering one group who supposedly could not achieve the good of true friendship; as Montaigne wrote, “the ordinary capacity of women is inadequate for that communion and fellowship which is the nurse of this sacred bond.” However, in the early modern period, women philosophers took on the subject of friendship in a way that challenged elements of this elitism. Still, many of these writers retained the equality condition in their accounts of friendship. In this talk, I consider the accounts of three early modern sources, two women, Mary Beale and Mary Astell, as well as one anonymous source, a newly discovered late seventeenth century manuscript. In so doing, I seek to articulate a response to the elitism objection that nonetheless justifies the equality condition in response to the apparent wealth of counterexamples that are readily cited. The talk will take place on Wednesday the 2nd of August at 3:30 p.m. in the Philosophy Seminar Room (N494) in the Quadrangle and will be simulcast via Zoom: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/88699564848. The talk will be followed by drinks and informal discussion at a nearby venue. All welcome! Enquiries about the seminar series can be directed to ryan....@sydney.edu.au<mailto:ryan....@sydney.edu.au> Ryan Cox Associate Lecturer in Philosophy Discipline of Philosophy School of Humanities University of Sydney ryan....@sydney.edu.au<mailto:ryan....@sydney.edu.au>
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