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From: wpg!russ@uunet.UU.NET (Russell Lawrence)
Newsgroups: comp.society.women
Subject: Re: Women and Brains
Message-ID: <5858@ecsvax.uncecs.edu>
Date: 16 Nov 88 17:33:26 GMT
References: <5761@ecsvax.uncecs.edu> <5825@ecsvax.uncecs.edu>
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In article <5825@ecsvax.uncecs.edu>, edhall@rand.org (Ed Hall) writes:
> As to the original comment on Lacanian feminists' ideas--it's
> fascinating that they have turned what was essentially a patriarchial
> philosophy onto its head.  But I don't see any more evidence for their
> point of view than the original.  Like others have pointed out, there is
> a gross ethnocentrism implied by the male=logic, female=intuition
> assumptions they make.  Not every culture was polluted by Aristotle and
> friends...

Hate to be nitpicky, but the use of the sexual metaphors, 'male' and 
'female', to describe logical and intuitive thinking is much older than 
Aristotle and is also found in diverse cultures that were relatively 
untouched by Hellenistic philosophy.  After all, Alexander the Great 
didn't really conquer the whole world.  

After much research, I'm convinced that the use of male and female 
imagery to describe modes of thought probably represents what historians 
would call a "recurrent idea"...  not simply a "continuing" one.  In 
other words, it tends to arise from the depths of the mind and is not 
simply propagated by verbal contact from one source to another.  Recent 
neurophysiological research concerning the effects of androgen on brain 
lateralization may explain why the idea is 'recurrent'.  

Incidently, to the best of my knowledge, male/female symbolism is always 
associated with meditative disciplines aimed at *enhancing* the 
intuitive mode.  As such, the symbolism is never perjorative in its 
native context though some of us may perceive it as such owing to the 
'logic' bias in our own culture.  
-- 
Russell Lawrence, WP Group, New Orleans (504) 456-0001
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