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Sexual Difference in Aristotle's Politics and His Biology
- Classical World
- Classical Association of the Atlantic States
- Volume 102, Number 3, Spring 2009
- pp. 215-231
- 10.1353/clw.0.0083
- Article
- Additional Information
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The argument of this paper is that Aristotle's claims about sexual difference in his biological works and in the Politics are not directly linked. First, I consider the claims that are foundational to Aristotle's views about sexual difference, in the biological treatises and in the Politics. Second, I consider the possibility that Aristotle believed that the connection between biological and political sexual differences lies in a material requirement that reproduction and political life share: body temperature. I argue against this possibility, and conclude that, in Aristotle's view, political sexual differences emerge from the social roles assigned to men and women.