Donne guardiane? Un ragionamento dirottato

We examine Plato's failure of nerve in following through an argument, the premises of which appear in the second book of the Republic, concerning the possibility that women could fill the role of Guardians (phylakes). This argument turns on the structuring of the soul that is apt to acquire the skills necessary for the guidance of the city. But, in the fifth book of the same work, Socrates and Glaucon seem to backtrack on the earlier argument and place excessive emphasis on the physical characteristics attributed to women. Granted that it is out of place to attribute to Plato anything that we would now call feminism, the hypothesis is mooted that he was blown off course by the fun that Aristophanes had had at the expense of the conclusion of the Bk II argument.