ABSTRACT
By analyzing the meanings of freedom and dependency in the political theory of John Locke and recent feminist scholarship, this chapter demonstrates that our dependence on nature and environmental imperatives that follow from it are not necessarily inimical to freedom as is currently thought. Given our embeddedness within social and ecological relationships, we are presumptively dependent upon and obliged to other beings; responsibilities for them are incumbent on all, and are not a matter of choice. Nevertheless, freedom is morally warranted within relationships. Caring for other persons and the environment requires recognizing their agency to bar undue power and to respect their diverse ends.
