CLEMIE FERREIRA BLAUD

At the beginning of the 17th century, the debate on the excellence of men and women through the comparison of superiority and inferiority was worn out and sterile, serving political and religious interests regarding the place of women in society. Marie de Gournay introduced the comparison of equality – until then used to measure strength, weight and military power – in a surprising thesis on the question of sex, based on the model of nature, the testimonies of authorities, philosophy and theology. She combats the tyranny of customs, refuting sophistries and beliefs, using the tools of logic, subordinating it to rhetoric. Gournay's discourse contemplates her condition as a woman, her experience with alchemy, her philosophical repertoire, her working method as a writer, editor and translator, culminating in a philosophy of multiple approaches that pair up or intersect as her thought becomes written word. Here, a place is defended for Marie de Gournay in the history of modern philosophy of the 17th century, demonstrating the virtues of the idea of gender equality as a driver of social equity.