Very insightful & interesting post. I just have one correction or caveat:
There's this liberal Enlightenment view that your body is just stuff kind of hanging around, while the Real You is the you of ideas and actions and concepts.
That idea is a heck of a lot older than the Enlightenment, and it's not necessarily liberal, either. Platonists were perfectly able to combine "only the spirit is real" with "women aren't as good" by positing that women's bodies attracted or were animated by second-rate spirits. *eyeroll*
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Date: 2006-10-05 05:08 pm (UTC)From:There's this liberal Enlightenment view that your body is just stuff kind of hanging around, while the Real You is the you of ideas and actions and concepts.
That idea is a heck of a lot older than the Enlightenment, and it's not necessarily liberal, either. Platonists were perfectly able to combine "only the spirit is real" with "women aren't as good" by positing that women's bodies attracted or were animated by second-rate spirits. *eyeroll*