ABSTRACT
The tradition of sexual differentiation was well established by the seventeenth century. Even in its more modernised versions, such as that of Cureau de la Chambre (1594–1669), this tradition is framed within a logic of Hippocratism and Aristotelianism, according to which the human being has essential specific differences depending on whether it is masculine or feminine. Cartesian anthropology overturns this conceptualisation by proposing a new psychophysiological analysis which posits the idea of equality, drawing on embryological, medical and metaphysical hypotheses. This original anthropology leads to a sexual neutrality, the implications of which are both intellectual and moral. This chapter will examine how this functions, and how it involves rethinking the “feminine” as well as the female, through an analysis of two opposing receptions of Cartesian anthropology as it relates to women, that of Malebranche (1638–1715) and of Poulain de la Barre (1647–1723).
