G. A. Cohen (1941–2009)

Considering the way the word “socialist” has been thrown around lately, it’s helpful to do a definition check. G.A. Cohen, a University of Oxford professor who died last August, sums it all up in an informative and thought-provoking little essay. Princeton has published a new, pocket-sized hardcover edition that’s both timely and useful. Cohen uses the example of a camping trip to illustrate how society functions, and then expands that illustration to explain how socialism works. He show more dismantles the idea that human selfishness is the bar to a working form of socialism, acknowledges the failures of central planning and posits a democratic socialism that uses the market rather than attempting to control it. While Cohen admits that all market systems are predatory, that’s no reason to simply surrender. Logically, concisely and deliberatively, he offers some good reasons to seek an alternative. show less

Cohen really is a true believer. At least on a small scale, he really does make good case for socialism. Where it breaks down is really anything applied to a larger scale without a dispute mechanism (i.e. markets). I found his objection to market socialism in particular more telling than objectionable as he seems to really want all participants in a socialist system to be true believers too. At that point, I think he's completely lost the plot as we're now dealing with ideologues as the show more reason why the system works rather than a self-correcting feature of the system itself (i.e. even capitalism would work if it was "true" capitalism and not corrupted by cronyism and regulatory capture, etc.). show less

How many analytic philosophical journal articles deserve to be sold on their own as a book? None, not even this one. On the other hand, it's a beautiful little object, and Cohen was such a wonderful human being, and so smart, that I'm happy to have contributed something to whoever he decided to leave his copy rights to. This won't convince anyone that socialism is plausible, or even that it's preferable, at least in the short term. But perhaps some college kid somewhere will read it, and it show more will slowly worm its way into his brain, and he'll become a slightly better person. Maybe. show less

this book was very good on why socialism is feasible and the general principles on which a socialist society should be built, but i thought cohen's vision of what socialism would actually entail was fairly hazy. (i wasn't sure if that was due to my own ignorance of political philosophy, but considering that this book is aimed to beginners i think that's a flaw nonetheless.)