ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out to examine the epistemological originality of the Cartesian Poulain de la Barre. It posits the idea of being “of no time” as a way of conceptualising the radicality of his theoretical and political stance. This contrasts with the idea of being “timeless” in treating a perennial question (as Molière does, for example) or of being “of one’s time” which is merely a formulation to mask prejudice. The chapter goes on to unpick a second difference in formulation between being “of no sex” (“l’esprit n’a point de sexe,”) and being of every sex ("l’esprit est de tout sexe,") and examines this difference in relation to Poulain’s ambiguous stance with regard to gallantry.
