Poulain takes Descartes’ philosophy to its practical conclusion. No philosopher has been mentioned more in our class than Descartes because of just how influential he was on the modern period. Since anyone studying modern philosophy is familiar with Descartes’ theories about doubt and mind-body dualism, Poulain’s philosophy is the perfect companion. He uses these basic Cartesian concepts and takes them out of the abstract realm of metaphysics and into the very real world of social justice in daily life. 

He was a radical, unafraid to challenge the norms of his society. Poulain himself admits that the patriarchy in his time was so strong that even many women believed themselves to be inferior to men. He bravely rejected deeply held beliefs about women’s inferiority, critiqued widely accepted interpretations of religious texts, and encouraged women to become educated. If anything, he suggests the inferiority of men. Poulain was a radical voice in his society, despite the pressure to conform to what others believed. 

Issues of sex and gender equality remain important in discourse today. From reproductive rights to wage inequality and employment discrimination to the rights of transgender and gender non-conforming people, there is no shortage of conversations in our modern world about the role of sex and gender. Although Poulain’s writing is sometimes antiquated, his basic concepts remain relevant to these conversations, which often come down to whether there are mental differences between people with bodies of different sexes. 

Poulain can help us understand ideas about feminism and social justice that came after him. He gives us tools to justify the inherent equality of people of different sexes and to discredit arguments in favor of male supremacy. Whether they knew it or not, feminists that came after Poulain often used these same tools to develop their arguments about liberation from gendered oppression. Additionally, his feminist readings of scriptural texts give us great analytical tools to respond to uses of the Bible to justify misogyny. Poulain is also helpful for social justice theory beyond the topic of gender. His discussion of prejudice looks a lot like the modern notion of implicit bias which is relevant to all kinds of identity-based oppression. 

He’s fun to read! Just check out some of these burns:

“[Men’s] idea of a good time is to get together and give themselves up to things that are better left unseen and unheard”

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“[Philosophers] spend entire years and in some cases their whole lives on trivialities and abstractions and in speculation about whether there are imaginary spaces beyond the world and whether the atoms or specks of dust we see in rays of sunlight are infinitely divisible. What trust can we place in the pronouncements of scholars of that sort when it comes to serious and important things?” 

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“we might see men as laborers struggling with rough and unhewn stones, and women as architects or skilled stonecutters who know how to polish and turn and display what they have in their hands”

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[On marriage]: “We know which sex is more faithful to the other, which puts up more cheerfully with the setbacks that occur during a marriage and generally shows greater wisdom in dealing with them”

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“If men had to suffer women’s wickedness, anger, and jealousy, as women do men’s, we could take these words literally, there is no wickedness, anger, or jealousy like that of a woman.”