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G. A. Cohen

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G. A. Cohen
Cohen in 1986
Born
Gerald Allan Cohen

(1941-04-14)14 April 1941
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Died5 August 2009(2009-08-05) (aged 68)
Oxford, England
Other namesJerry Cohen
Spouses
  • Margaret Pearce
    (m. 1965; div. 1996)
  • Michèle Jacottet
    (m. 1999)
Children3
Academic background
Alma mater
Academic advisorsGilbert Ryle[1]
Influences
Academic work
DisciplinePhilosophy
Sub-discipline
School or tradition
Institutions
Doctoral students
Notable students
Notable worksKarl Marx's Theory of History (1978)[3]
Notable ideas
Influenced

Gerald Allan Cohen FBA (/ˈkən/ KOH-ən; 14 April 1941 – 5 August 2009) was a Canadian 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. He was known for his work on Marxism, and later, egalitarianism and distributive justice in normative political philosophy.

Background

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Born into an ethnically Jewish but "militantly anti-religious" and communist family in Montreal, Quebec, on 14 April 1941,[6][7] Cohen was educated at theMorris Winchevsky School, Strathcona Academy, and Outremont High School.[8] He then attended McGill University, obtaining a BA in philosophy and political science, and the University of Oxford, where he studied under Gilbert Ryle (and was also taught by Isaiah Berlin) and obtained a BPhil in philosophy.[7][9]

Academic career

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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.[10] Several of his students, such as Christopher Bertram, Simon Caney, Alan Carter, Cécile Fabre, Will Kymlicka, John McMurtry, David Leopold, Michael Otsuka, Seana Shiffrin, and Jonathan Wolff went on to be important moral and political philosophers. He retired from the Chichele chair in 2008 and at the time of his death he was a visiting Quain Professor of Jurisprudence at UCL Faculty of Laws.[11][12]

Cohen was a proponent of analytical Marxism[13][14] and a founding member of the September Group. His 1978 work Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence defends an interpretation of Karl Marx's historical materialism its critics often call technological determinism.[15] 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 hold them.

Cohen was known for his flamboyant style during philosophical debates. According to his best friend, the philosopher Gerald Dworkin, "Nothing was too inappropriate, private, bizarre, or embarrassing to be suddenly brought into the conversation".[16]

Personal life and death

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In 1965, Cohen married Margaret Pearce; they had three children and divorced in 1996.[10] Three years later, he married Michèle Jacottet.[10] He personally abjured technology, a stance he called "technological conservatism"; Michèle answered all his email.

Cohen was close friends with Marxist political philosopher Marshall Berman.

On 5 August 2009, Cohen died from a stroke at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, aged 68.[10]

Select works

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  • "Marx and Locke on Land and Labour" Proceedings of the British Academy 71, 1985 (1986)
  • Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence (1978, 2000)
  • History, Labour, and Freedom (1988)
  • "Incentives, Inequality, and Community" The Tanner Lectures On Human Values, Delivered at Stanford University May 21, 23, 1991
  • Self-Ownership, Freedom, and Equality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1995. ISBN 978-0-5214-7174-9. OCLC 612482692.
  • If You're an Egalitarian, How Come You're So Rich? (2000)
  • "Expensive Taste Rides Again," in: Ronald Dworkin and his Critics, with replies by Dworkin (2004)
  • Rescuing Justice and Equality (2008)
  • Why Not Socialism? (2009) [17]
  • On the Currency of Egalitarian Justice, and Other Essays in Political Philosophy (2011)[18]
  • Finding Oneself in the Other (2012)
  • Lectures on the History of Moral and Political Philosophy (2013)

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Rosen, Michael (2010). "Jerry Cohen: An Appreciation" (PDF). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University. p. 2. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  2. ^ Vallentyne, Peter (2014). "Libertarianism". In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University.
  3. ^ Rosen, Michael (2010). "Jerry Cohen: An Appreciation". Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University. p. 5. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  4. ^ Frank Vandenbroucke, Social Justice and Individual Ethics in an Open Society: Equality, Responsibility, and Incentives, Springer, 2012, p. 149.
  5. ^ Alexander Kaufman (ed.), Distributive Justice and Access to Advantage, Cambridge University Press, 2014, p. 52.
  6. ^ Paul, Levy (12 August 2009). "Professor Jerry Cohen: Maverick philosopher who subjected Marxism to the rigours of analytical philosophy". The Independent.
  7. ^ a b O'Grady, Jane (10 August 2009). "GA Cohen". The Guardian.
  8. ^ Anon. (11 August 2009). "Professor Jerry Cohen: philosopher". The Times. Archived from the original on 24 May 2010. Retrieved 8 March 2025.
  9. ^ Farmelant, James (8 August 2009). "G. A. Cohen, 1941-2009". Monthly Review. Retrieved 9 March 2025.
  10. ^ a b c d Elster, Jon (2013). "Cohen, Gerald Allan [Jerry] (1941–2009), philosopher". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/101555. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  11. ^ Stephen, Guest (6 August 2009). "Obituary: Professor Jerry Cohen". UCL News. Retrieved 8 March 2025.
  12. ^ Otsuka, Michael (11 August 2009). "Remarks at Jerry Cohen's funeral, All Souls College Chapel" (PDF). London School of Economics and Political Science – Personal Web Pages. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 May 2022. Retrieved 9 March 2025.
  13. ^ Cohen, G. A. (12 March 2017) [1981]. "The Labour Theory of Value and the Concept of Exploitation". Verso. Retrieved 5 March 2025.
  14. ^ Callinicos, Alex (11 August 2009). "Remembering Jerry Cohen". Socialist Worker. Archived from the original on 13 August 2009. Retrieved 9 March 2025.
  15. ^ Singer, Peter (2000). Marx: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 105. ISBN 978-0-19-285405-6.
  16. ^ Dworkin, Gerald (14 August 2009). "In Memoriam G. A. (Jerry) Cohen". 3 Quarks Daily. Archived from the original on 17 October 2024. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
  17. ^ Barker, Alexander (9 November 2009). "On a Socialist Camping Trip". The Oxonian Review. Archived from the original on 11 March 2010. Retrieved 8 March 2025.
  18. ^ Robeyns, Ingrid (July 2015). "On G. A. Cohen's "On the Currency of Egalitarian Justice"". Ethics. 125 (4): 1132–1135. doi:10.1086/680879. ISSN 0014-1704. JSTOR 10.1086/680879.

Further reading

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Academic offices
Preceded by Chichele Professor of
Social and Political Theory

1985–2008
Succeeded by
Preceded by Tanner Lecturer on Human Values
at Stanford University

1990–1991
Succeeded by
Preceded by
Gifford Lecturer at the
University of Edinburgh

1995–1996
Succeeded by
Preceded by Quain Professor of Jurisprudence
2008–2009
Succeeded by
Awards
Preceded by Deutscher Memorial Prize
1979
Succeeded by