Les femmes dans la philosophie politique d'Averroès. Proposition d'approche méthodologique
Résumé
The purpose of this article is to revisit an issue raised by Catarina Belo in 2009. Belo argues that in his commentaries Averroes follows the Aristotelian conception of women as defective males, whereas Averroes develops a different, more progressive view that gives women a more positive role in two of his treatises: the Commentary on the Republic (CRep), and the Bidāyat al-muǧtahid wa-nihāyat al-muqtaṣid (The Distinguished Jurist's Primer). Belo also claims that this "progressive" view is in line with Averroes' own opinion on women. This article will challenge the view of a "progressive" Averroes on the question of women and will introduce a new critical approach. (The article does not address the question of how to define "feminism"). Belo examines two treatises that belong to different disciplines -law and philosophy -though she does not justify this procedure. I argue, rather, that the question of women in Averroes' thought should focus on the CRep only. This treatise belongs to the epistemic context of Averroes' political philosophy and its specific architecture. I identify and collect the passages in the CRep that mention women. Since some of these passages present views that seem a priori more progressive than others, I attempt to resolve these discrepancies, first, by shedding light on the context of these passages and underlining remarks made by Averroes that would temper the philosopher's so-called progressivism in regard to the role played by women in politics, and second, by taking seriously the philosophical architecture introduced by Averroes that is based on an analogy between political science and medical science. This argument sets the stage for a "metaphorical" interpretation of the passages of the First Treatise (corresponding to Plato's Republic, Book 5) according to which the CRep is assimilated to a psychological treatise rather than to political philosophy per se.
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