Men, individualism, and process: A Pardoner’s Tale

Abstract

Taking a long look back through the philosophical underpinnings of contemporary hyper-masculinity, from renaissance writers such as Hobbes and Locke up to modern American philosopher, Nozick, this chapter maps out the key philosophical fault-lines of the possessive individualism driving the hyper-masculinised competitive capitalism that has brought environmental destruction upon us all. The chapter offers Bergson and Whitehead’s process philosophy as an antidote, outlining its reappraisal of the nature of time, and of the interrelated multiplicity of a world understood as a flow of events, rather than as an agglomeration of things. Could such a philosophical shift help reorient masculinities towards a more collaborative, more fluid and more ecological future?