THESP 6th February 2012 16:30 – 18:30

Catherine Wilson
Regius Professor of Moral Philosophy, University of Aberdeen

‘Animality and Equality: Civilisations critique before (and in) Marx and Engels’
NOTE ROOM CHANGE FROM PREVIOUS POSTING OF THIS EVENT
Dante Building Room 006

Abstract
Marx and Engels insisted that there was a “necessary connection” between the philosophical materialism of the 17th and 18th century and socialism and communism. But what exactly was the connection? Materialists like Hobbes and (arguably) Locke were assuredly not socialists or communists. The paper will discuss 18th century ideas about anthropology, the domestication of animals, and animal industriousness that enabled Marx and Engels to think in a new way about alienation and exploitation and to build this conceptual bridge.