From a Marxist Feminist Point of View. Essays on Freedom, Rationality and Human Nature

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Published Jul 2024

Nancy Holmstrom

This book shows the fruitfulness of approaching key philosophical and political questions from a Marxist-feminist point of view. The idea is that different modes of production like capitalism and feudalism have structures — ‘relations of production’ — which shape and limit the potentials for human emancipation in general and women’s freedom in particular. Capitalism is then understood as a framework within which other relations of oppression operate, with more or less salience in different times and places. Each of the essays takes this basic approach to key philosophical questions about freedom, rationality and human nature.

Biographical Note

Nancy Holmstrom, Ph.D 1970, University of Michigan, Professor of Philosophy Emerita, Rutgers University-Newark. A lifelong activist, she has published numerous articles on core political-philosophical topics, edited The Socialist-Feminist Project (MR2002) and co-authored Capitalism For and Against: A Feminist Debate (Cambridge 2011).

Readership

Philosophers and political theorists, students of philosophy and political theory. Also left-leaning academic or student in any field. Libraries, academic institutes, especially left-leaning ones.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction
1 Modes of Production
2 Rationality
3 Freedom
4 Human Nature/Women’s Nature

Part 1 Modes of Production

Developing Marx’s Mode of Production Theory

Varieties of Marxist/Socialist Feminist Theory and Practice
1 Varieties of Socialist Feminism: One System or Two
2 What Is a ‘System?’
3 Intersectionality
4 A Framework Model—One Non-reductive System

Sex, Work and Capitalism
1 Introduction
2 What Is Sex Work?
3 Political/Economic Context
4 Empowerment vs. Power, Agency and Freedom
5 A ‘Work Ethic instead of a Sex Ethic?’
6 Is Sex Special?
7 What Is To Be Done?

Women’s Work, the Family and Capitalism

Democratic Socialism for a Finite World
1 ‘Democracy’
2 ‘Socialism’
3 Democracy as the END of Socialism
4 Democracy as the MEANS to Socialism
5 Why Democratic Socialism Is ECOSOCIALIST
6 Why Democratic Socialism Is FEMINIST

Part 2 Rationality

Rationality and Revolution

For a Sustainable Future: The Centrality of Public Goods
1 Rethinking Property and Rationality: From the Individual to the Collective
2 Property
3 Rationality
4 From Common Sense to Common Practice: Struggles around Public Goods

Part 3 Freedom

Free Will and a Marxist Concept of Natural Wants

Against Capitalism from a Feminist Point of View
1 Basic Definitions: ‘Capitalism’ and ‘Women’s Interests’
2 Gender interests: Strategic and Practical
3 Capitalism in Theory: Ideals and Limits
4 Capitalism in Reality

Part 4 Human Nature/Women’s Nature

10 A Marxist Theory of Women’s Nature

11 Humankind(s)

12 Alienation, Freedom and Human Nature

Bibliography
Index