Gender, Class, and Freedom in Modern Political Theory

Front Cover
Princeton University Press, 2008 - Philosophy - 342 pages

In Gender, Class, and Freedom in Modern Political Theory, Nancy Hirschmann demonstrates not merely that modern theories of freedom are susceptible to gender and class analysis but that they must be analyzed in terms of gender and class in order to be understood at all. Through rigorous close readings of major and minor works of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, and Mill, Hirschmann establishes and examines the gender and class foundations of the modern understanding of freedom. Building on a social constructivist model of freedom that she developed in her award-winning book The Subject of Liberty: Toward a Feminist Theory of Freedom, she makes in her new book another original and important contribution to political and feminist theory.


Despite the prominence of "state of nature" ideas in modern political theory, Hirschmann argues, theories of freedom actually advance a social constructivist understanding of humanity. By rereading "human nature" in light of this insight, Hirschmann uncovers theories of freedom that are both more historically accurate and more relevant to contemporary politics. Pigeonholing canonical theorists as proponents of either "positive" or "negative" liberty is historically inaccurate, she demonstrates, because theorists deploy both conceptions of freedom simultaneously throughout their work.

 

Contents

CHAPTER
24
Warrior Women Invisible Wives
44
The Social Construction of Freedom
63
Conclusion
77
The Gendered Property of Freedom
91
The Construction of Individuality the Discipline of Freedom
106
Rousseaus Three Kinds of Freedom
119
Education Will and the Social Construction of Citizens
133
Conclusion
166
CHAPTER FOUR
168
Class Education and Social Construction
188
Conclusion
207
Rethinking Freedom in the Canon
274
Notes
291
References
317
Index
331

Julie or The Woman as Model Citizen
152

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2008)

Nancy J. Hirschmann is the R. Jean Brownlee Endowed Term Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. Her book The Subject of Liberty: Toward a Feminist Theory of Freedom (Princeton) won the 2004 Victoria Schuck Award for the best book on women and politics from the American Political Science Association.

Bibliographic information