Philosophy Notes

Emma Goldman, Woman Suffrage

In Woman Suffrage (published 1911), anarchist thinker and activist Emma Goldman (1869–1940), radically argues that women’s suffrage is not a panacea for women’s, and more broadly, society’s, liberation. In fact, Goldman posits that it can sometimes serve as a distraction or even source of control.

Justin Garson on the incoherence of innate biological traits, and proposing the robust-plastic continuum

In chapter 4, Nature and Nurture, of Justin Garson’s The Biological Mind: A Philosophical Introduction, Garson takes the nature/nurture debate head on.

Put briefly, Garson argues that the biological concept of “innateness” is confused, bordering on meaningless. Garson proposes that we instead distinguish traits along a robust/plastic continuum.

Locke on property

A simplified, section-by-section summary of Chapter. V. Of Property. from Locke’s Second Treatise of Government.

Locke argues that people come to acquire property rights by “mixing their labour” with natural resources. Locke includes two provisos: First, that “there is enough, and as good, left in common for others.” And second, that the person uses the resource before it spoils.

Locke’s Second Treatise on Government has become a foundational text in liberalism and has shaped Western governance and individual rights.

Chapter. V. Of Property focuses on property rights and has had major influence on the development of capitalism and private ownership.

Freedom and Money by G.A. Cohen

A simplified, section-by-section summary of Freedom and Money by political philosopher Gerald Allen Cohen.

Cohen criticizes liberal Rawls & Berlin for ceding to right-wing political philosophers by agreeing with the premise that lack of money is to suffer simply lack of means & not interference of freedom.

Instead, he challenges them on the conceptual grounds of their argument: He argues that poverty is in fact a lack of freedom.

Cohen claims money is an INUS condition for freedom & illustrates this using a hypothetical society with “access tickets” to various goods & services.