“Dimensions of Property in Reproductive Economies: Practices, Interpretations and Discourses”

Fr 17.02.2023, 10-11 Uhr

Keynote-Lecture von Janice Richardson (Monash University): Subordination and Surrogacy: Feminist Perspectives on Locke’s Conception of “Property in the Person”  (Die Lecture findet auf Englisch statt).

The idea of “property in the person” that social contract theorist John Locke introduced in the 17th century has been widely discussed in feminist philosophy and beyond.  In this talk I will firstly discuss Carole Pateman’s well-known feminist critique of Locke, in which she (rightly – I think) recognises the importance of the problem of subordination and the ways in which it is related to contract in modernity. I will then consider other feminist insights about Locke by philosopher Susan Moller Okin and the historian of ideas, Janet Coleman. Based on Coleman’s analysis I will draw out what is problematic in Locke’s revolutionary re-conceptualisation of “the individual” in relation to “property in the person”. I argue that Spinoza, philosopher of the radical Enlightenment, provides a better conception of the two relationships of self/other and mind/body that helps to avoid some of the problems of Locke’s theoretical position. Finally, I consider the extent to which the Lockean idea of “property in the person” and respective feminist critiques can inform our ideas about surrogacy.

Meeting-Link:

https://fu-berlin.webex.com/fu berlin/j.php?MTID=m679ed9b66ebb859e64add4431572d902

Meeting-ID: 2731 717 5231
Passcode: myRXMFBz237