Metodo di ricerca e identità sessuale nelle scienze positive

Abstract

The article faces the theme of the historical distinction, starting from the Greek world, between a “high” learning represented by the sciences, such as astronomy, geometry, physics and above all, by philosophy and theology, and a “low” learning linked to popular beliefs which, in particular, medicine and alchemy made reference to. The former were based on the observation of facts and on the method of deductive reasoning, but did not yet utilize experimentation, widely utilized, on the other hand, in antiquity in medicine and alchemy. The author observes that it is in these very fields that women began to develop their investigative capacities, even though since the time of Aristotle women have been continuously excluded from research and scientific divulgation. The hypothesis of research developed in this work is that women have been penalized by the imposition of a rational investigative method, strictly linked to the development of the Aristotelian logos. And in particular it is the world of Christianity, rather than Islamic culture, that has inherited an attitude of open hostility towards the knowledge of women and the emergence of an “intelligent” female identity.