G.A. Cohen: A Life in Search of Justice
By Benjamin Hand
On August 4th of this year, the world lost one of its great philosophers. G.A Cohen, referred to by friend and foe alike as Jerry, was one of the world’s leading voices on analytical Marxism, distributive justice, and political philosophy. Perhaps no one in our time has thought so enduringly about rescuing Marx’s hope for equality and egalitarianism.
Jerry Cohen was born into a Marxist Jewish family living in Montreal in 1941, and was raised on the hope of an egalitarian future through communism. He attended the Morris Winchevesky Yiddish School and was subsequently the leader of a branch of the National Federation of Labor Youth. He graduated from McGill University in 1961 with a B.A., and found himself deciding between the University of Oxford and Harvard University for graduate studies. Against the advice of his advisors, he chose Oxford, and graduated with a BPhil under one of the century’s great philosophy of mind theorists, Gilbert Ryle. Cohen taught at the University College London for the next twenty-two years before accepting the Chichele Professorship of Social And Political Theory at All Souls College, Oxford in 1985.
Cohen’s academic work, spanning four decades, is a testament to the breath of his concern and the plurality of his interests. His first major work, Karl Marx’s Theory of History: A Defense, is an attempt to use the tools of rational choice theory and modern economics to provide a basis for Marx’s conception of dialectical materialism. This book is sometimes considered the first in the movement now known as analytical Marxism, of which Cohen was considered a leader. The book was considered a huge success and won the Issac Duetscher memorial prize, which is given annually for an important contribution to Marxist thought.
However, having offered his view on Marx’s project, Cohen turned towards the subjects that would occupy him time and time again throughout his career: equality, justice, and egalitarianism. Over the last few decades, he produced a series of important books addressing issues that were important to him. In Self-Ownership, Freedom and Equality, he produced a powerful appraisal of the work of Robert Nozick. The tract offers a critique of the general libertarian attack against the welfare state. Cohen points out that because our current distribution of property is not a “natural state of things,” property has already been distributed unfairly over the population in such a way that restricts fundamental liberty of opportunity.
Towards the end of his life, Cohen released two great books dealing with equality and egalitarianism. In 2000, he released If You’re Egalitarian, How Come You’re So Rich, which was adopted from his Gifford Lectures. This book addresses everything from his Marxist upbringing in Montreal to the difference between being egalitarian with respect to wealth and being egalitarian with respect to opportunity, of which Cohen considered himself the latter. In 2008 he published Rescuing Justice and Equality, which among other things, is a critique of the ideas of John Rawls. But it was also another chance for Cohen to again raise a question that had run through his life’s work: Quality of What? Cohen’s last book, Why Socialism? will be released this year.
Despite Cohen’s academic contributions, when one reads the memorials to Cohen that have popped up all over the internet over the last few months, one is struck by the many ways in which he is remembered as much more than a scholar. A number of prominent philosophers and political theorists have come forward expressing their remembrances of Cohen as a teacher, mentor, and friend. This list includes, but is not limited to: Michael Otsuka, Jonathan Wolff, Chris Bertram, John Gardner, and Harvard’s own Michael Rosen.
Luckily for those of us who never had the opportunity to meet Jerry, there are a number of opportunities to hear him speak online. “Philosophy Bites,” a website offering podcasts of philosophers, has a great short interview with him that addresses the differences between equality, egalitarianism of wealth, and egalitarianism of opportunity. There are also recordings of his recent vindicatory lecture titled “My Philosophical Development and Impressions of Philosophers I Met Along the Way.” Though this may sound like a lecture in which Cohen discusses how he felt about certain philosophers that he had met throughout his career, it was in fact a marvelous hour and a half of Cohen telling stories and literally impersonating philosophers ranging from Gilbert Ryle to A.J Ayer and W.O. Quine. Impression is a word with more then one meaning, especially when one has a sense of humor!
And finally, I would encourage anyone with an interest in justice, equality, egalitarianism, global justice, distributive justice, or Marxism to pick up one of Cohen’s books. They are marvelously written, and provide wonderful insight for anyone who has felt the urge to think about justice and equality. Jerry Cohen, you will be missed but not forgotten.