Gerald Cohen

G. A. Cohen
Born	(1941-04-14)14 April 1941 Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Died	Oxford, England, United Kingdom
Era	20th-century philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Marxism, analytic philosophy, egalitarianism
Main interests	Political philosophy, ethics, philosophy of history, social theory
Notable ideas	Strict difference principle, egalitarian ethos
Influences Karl Marx, Gilbert Ryle, Isaiah Berlin
Influenced Will Kymlicka, Jonathan Wolff, Michael Otsuka, Alan Carter, John McMurtry

Gerald Allan "Jerry" Cohen, FBA (14 April 1941 – 5 August 2009) was a Marxist political philosopher who held the positions of Quain Professor of Jurisprudence, University College London and Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory, All Souls College, Oxford. Born into a communist family in Montreal, Cohen was educated at McGill University, Canada (BA, philosophy and political science) and the University of Oxford (BPhil, philosophy) where he studied under Isaiah Berlin and Gilbert Ryle.

Cohen was assistant lecturer (1963–1964), lecturer (1964–1979) then reader (1979–1984) in the Department of Philosophy at University College London, before being appointed to the Chichele chair at Oxford in 1985. Several of his students, such as Alan Carter, Will Kymlicka, John McMurtry, David Leopold, Michael Otsuka, Seana Shiffrin and Jonathan Wolff have gone on to be important moral and political philosophers in their own right.

Known as a proponent of Analytical Marxism and a founding member of the September Group, Cohen's 1978 work Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence defends an interpretation of Marx's historical materialism often referred to as 'technological determinism' by its critics. In Self-Ownership, Freedom, and Equality, Cohen offers an extensive moral argument in favour of socialism, contrasting his views with those of John Rawls and Robert Nozick, by articulating an extensive critique of the Lockean principle of self-ownership as well as the use of that principle to defend right – as well as left – libertarianism. In If You're an Egalitarian, How Come You're So Rich? (which covers the topic of his Gifford Lectures) Cohen addresses the question of what egalitarian political principles imply for the personal behaviour of those who subscribe to them.

Works

• Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence (1978, 2000)
• History, Labour, and Freedom (1988)
• If You're an Egalitarian, How Come You're So Rich? (2000)
• Chapter in Dworkin and his Critics, with replies by Dworkin (2004)
• Rescuing Justice and Equality (2008)
• Why Not Socialism? (2009) [Trad. esp.: ¿Por qué no el socialismo?, Buenos Aires/Madrid, Katz editores, 2011, ISBN 978-84-92946-13-6]
• On the Currency of Egalitarian Justice, and Other Essays in Political Philosophy (2011)
• Finding Oneself in the Other (2012)
• Lectures on the History of Moral and Political Philosophy (2013)

See also

• List of people from Montreal
• Luck egalitarianism

Further reading

• The Egalitarian Conscience: Essays in Honour of G. A. Cohen (2006); edited by Christine Sypnowich

External links

• Socialist Studies Special Edition on the Life and Work of G.A. Cohen
• Imprints interview
• Cohen's Tanner Lectures: "Incentives, Inequality, and Community"
• Cohen interview at Philosophy Bites (mp3 audio)
• Obituary to Gerald Cohen at The Third Estate
• Obituary in The Monthly Review
• Obituary in The Times
• Obituary in The Guardian
• Obituary in The Independent
• Remembering Jerry Cohen: A Tribute in Socialist Worker
• Review of Why Not Socialism? in The Oxonian Review
• Journal of Ethics volume for Jerry Cohen
• Cohen Against Capitalism on Channel 4 on YouTube