Beyond Nature: Animal Liberation, Marxism, and Critical Theory

In Beyond Nature Marco Maurizi offers a unique perspective on the question of animal liberation. Because animal rights activism has hitherto been characterized by an abstract moralism, Maurizi proposes instead a historical-materialist analysis of the relationship between humans and non-human animals. 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.

In Beyond Nature Marco Maurizi offers a unique perspective on the question of animal liberation. Because animal rights activism has hitherto been characterized by an abstract moralism, Maurizi proposes instead a historical-materialist analysis of the relationship between humans and non-human animals. 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.