Dualism and Universal Egoism. In Feminism and Human Nature, a feminist classic which Xxxxx cites extensively in her critiques of liberalism, Xxxxxx Xxxxxx identifies dualism, equality, atomism and universal egoism as the key elements of the liberal conception of human nature. She argues that the liberal 52 Matheron, “The Theoretical Function of Democracy in Spinoza and Xxxxxx” in Xxxxxx and Xxxxxx (Eds.) The New Spinoza. (University of Minnesota, 2008). conception of human nature is philosophically and politically problematic because of these characteristics and because of the political principles which follow from them. Liberalism’s substantive political principles and recommendations are based on this false picture of human nature and have effects which, Xxxxxx argues, are positively harmful to human welfare. She argues that the liberal model of the human yields false expectations of individual behaviors from people and leads us to ignore relevant characteristics of individuals and their situations which can make the difference between increasing their power or not. Requiring (or just assuming) political participants to be of equal capacity, rationality and independence excludes from the start those who already are disempowered in a society. Xxxxxx understands liberalism itself to be founded upon this conception of human nature, not merely justified by it. Her condemnation of its political effects is foreshadowed in her analysis of their cause, the liberal conception of human nature. Xxxxxx argues that the liberal conception of human nature has four problematic aspects: it presumes a. dualism, b. equality, c. atomism and d. universal egoism.
