Feminist Philosophers Turn Their Thoughts to Death

The connection between philosophy and death has a long and distinguished history. From the pre-Socratics Epicurus and Lucretius to the better known ancients Plato and Aristotle, philosophers have considered death a subject worthy of our attention. Philosophy, it is said, is the practise of the free mind, and death, according to Socrates, is the end of the imprisonment of the mind in the body. Are there any gendered aspects to thinking about the relationship between death and philosophy? While we often teach the death of Socrates as a noble and brave death, feminist critics of the ancient philosophers note that in the famous painting of his death, there are no women among those sitting at Socrates ’ side. Socrates, we are told, sent the women away because they dared to express emotion at his coming death. When the men too started to weep, Socrates said, “What is this you strange fellows. It is mainly for this reason that I sent the women away, to avoid such unseemliness, for I am told one should die in good omened-silence. So keep quiet and control yourselves. ” (Plato, 117e) So while death is universal, affecting men and women equally, we see that women are associated with emotion, men with reason; women with the life of the bod