G. A. Cohen, 1941-2009
by James Farmelant
Early in the morning on August 5th, one of the most notable left-wing
political philosophers of the English-speaking world, Gerald Allan
Cohen, (G. A. Cohen) or as he liked to be called by his friends, Jerry
Cohen, died after suffering a massive stroke at the age of 68. Jerry
Cohen was probably best known for his 1978 book, Karl Marx's Theory of
History: A Defence (Oxford University Press), where he attempted to
apply the techniques of analytical philosophy (including both logical
analysis and linguistic analysis) to the elucidation and defense of
Karl Marx's materialist conception of history. In doing so, he helped
give birth to a new school Marxist thought, Analytical Marxism. This
school sought to clarify Marxism, using not only the tools of
analytical philosophy, along with tools of modern social science such
as rational choice theory (i.e. game theory and even neoclassical
economic analysis), to the clarification and defense of the theories
of Karl Marx and his successors. Besides Jerry, other leading
Analytical Marxists included the economist John Roemer, the political
theorist Jon Elster, the economist and economic historian Robert
Brenner, and the sociologist Erik Olin Wright.
In this respect, Jerry Cohen offered a reading of Marx that rejected both
traditional dialectical materialism, as well as the Hegelian readings
associated with Western Marxist schools like the Frankfurt School as
well as the structuralism of Louis Althusser. In this and other
respects, this book was the product of Jerry's unique background. He
was born the son of working class Jewish parents in Montreal. Both
his parents were active in leftist politics, with his father active in
trade unionism while his mother was a member of the Communist Party of
Canada. As a young boy, Jerry Cohen for a time attended a left-wing
Jewish day school that had the distinction of being raided by Quebec's
red squad. That raid eventually led to the school's closure. During
his teens, Jerry was active in the National Federation of Labour
Youth, which was the youth arm of the Canadian Communists. He
experienced the turmoil which tore the Party apart following Nikita
Khrushchev's de-Stalinization speech before the Twentieth Congress in
1956 and which led to the disintegration of the National Federation of
Labour Youth in Quebec. Out of this milieu, Jerry went on to attend
McGill University where he studied philosophy and was active in the
university's Socialist Society, of which he became president.
After graduating from McGill, Jerry Cohen then went to Oxford
University to pursue graduate study in philosophy, earning a B.Phil
degree and becoming fully trained as an analytical philosopher. At
Oxford he studied under Gilbert Ryle who was one of the leading
analytical philosophers of the twentieth century (among other notable
students of Gilbert Ryle include A. J. Ayer and Daniel Dennett). He
also studied under the political philosopher Isaiah Berlin, who was
one of the leading lights of liberal political philosophy. While
Jerry remained very much a socialist and he was quite critical of
Berlin's analysis of negative liberty versus positive liberty, the two
men became close personal friends. After completing his studies at
Oxford, Jerry Cohen stayed in the UK and took a teaching position at
University College London as an assistant lecturer, lecturer, and
reader in the philosophy department of that institution. It was
during those years, in the 1960s and 1970s, that he began the work,
which led to the writing of his famous book. He would remain at
University College London until his 1985 appointment as the Chichele
Professor of Social and Political Theory at All Souls College, Oxford.
He would then remain at Oxford until 2008 when he took emeritus
status there and accepted a new position as the Quain Professor of
Jurisprudence at University College London.
A full evaluation of Jerry Cohen's thought and work would be beyond
the scope of this article. However, it should be noted that his
thought (and the thought of his fellow Analytical Marxists) followed a
distinct trajectory. They started with a focus on historical
materialism, but, over time, they became more and more focused on the
ethical justification of socialism. Indeed, that was the focus of his
later books including Self-Ownership, Freedom and Equality (Cambridge
University Press, 1995) and If you're an egalitarian how come you're
so rich? (Harvard University Press, 2000). He became intrigued with
the arguments of libertarian political philosophers, especially those
of Robert Nozick, as expressed in the latter's Anarchy, State, and
Utopia (Basic Books, 1974). Jerry was intrigued by the libertarians,
both because he thought that they had provided some of the strongest
arguments available in defense of capitalism and because they appealed
to premises which he himself embraced. Therefore, Jerry devoted much
time and energy to
