In Beyond Nature Maurizi tackles the animal question from an unprecedented perspective: strongly criticizing the abstract moralism that has always characterized animal rights activism, the author proposes a historical-materialistic analysis of the relationship between humans and non-humans.
By contrasting the thinking of Hegel, Marx and the Frankfurt School with classical authors in the field of animal rights (such as Singer, Regan, and Francione) this text offers an alternative, social and dialectical theory of animality and a different practical approach to the problem of animal suffering. The hopes for change placed in veganism, liberationism and animal activism are here assumed in a political, revolutionary perspective, in which human and animal liberation finally cease to oppose each other.
Marco Maurizi (1974) teaches Philosophy and History at the Lombardo Radice Institute in Rome, and holds courses and seminaries at the University of Tor Vergata. He has published several books, translations and articles on animal liberation, Critical Theory and Marxism.
Introduction
â1âThe Soul of Animals under Socialism
â2âDid You Say âDialecticsâ?
â3âSinger & Sons
â4âAgainst Animal Liberation Ideology
â5âCritical Failures
â6âHegelian Animal Spirits
â7âThe Structure of the Book
Part 1 Critique of Animal Liberation Ideology
1 What Is Antispeciesism?
â1âThree Different Definitions
â2âA Sociological Fallacy
â3âMetaphysical and Historical Antispeciesism
â4âAnimal Liberation and Human Liberation?
2 On the Genesis of Speciesism
â1âThe Ambiguity of Speciesism
â2âThe Origin of Speciesism
â3âHow?
â4âSpeciesism and Human Liberation
3 Animal Right Activism and Its Discontents
â1âTwo Forms of Praxis: Conflict and Inclusion
â2âConflict
â3âInclusion
â4âThe âBottom-Upâ Change Is a Disguised Hierarchical Change
â5âVeganism Is Not a Mode of Production
Part 2 Marxism and Animal Liberation
4 Marxism and Animal Rights
â1âOne Struggle?
â2âAnimal Rights vs. Marx
â3âThe Role of Animals in Marxism
â4âThe Real Problem: Animal Alienation
5 Marxism and the Repression of Nature
â1âAnimal and Capital
â2âHistory and Natural History in Marx and Engels
â3âFrom Primitive Communism to the Early States
â4âConclusion
6 The Dialectical Animal
â1âAnimality and Anthropopoiesis
â2âFrom the Institute for Social Research to the âFrankfurt Schoolâ
â3âFrom Nature to Animals
â4âThe Structure of Domination
â5âThe Specific Role of Animals in the General Scheme of Domination
â6âThe Dialectical Animal
â7âMaterialistic Solidarity
â8âA New âDialectics of Natureâ
â9âThe Reconciliation of Nature
Part 3 Conclusion: Beyond Nature
7 Towards a Post-Neolithic Society
â1âMaterialism and TechnÄ
â2âUniversal History as a Catastrophe
â3âThe Universal Human Being and the Enlarged Animal Society
â4âRien faire comme une bête
8 The Aporetic Nature of the Theory/Praxis Opposition
Epilogue: Antispeciesism and Anticapitalism
References Index
All interested in animal rights, ecosocialism and Marxism (activists and researchers), scholars of the Frankfurt School. Its political orientation can also attract the attention of anti-capitalist militants in general.