Can you be a true egalitarian while living a wealthy, capitalist lifestyle?
In short: Gerald Allan Cohen, a titan of political philosophy, spent his career challenging the foundations of Marxism and libertarianism. He famously interrogated the personal contradictions of those who preach equality while enjoying significant wealth, forcing us to ask what our political principles actually demand of our daily, private behavior.
Born in Montreal in 1941 to a militantly anti-religious, communist family, Cohen became a leading figure in analytical Marxism. He is best known for his 1978 book, Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence, which interpreted Marx’s historical materialism through the lens of technological determinism. By the time he held the Chichele Chair at Oxford, his focus had shifted toward distributive justice and egalitarianism, where he engaged in rigorous debates with thinkers like John Rawls and Robert Nozick.
Cohen’s work often centered on the concept of freedom. He famously rejected the labor theory of value, arguing instead that capitalism creates a 'structure of proletarian unfreedom.' In this view, workers are not merely exploited for their labor-power but are fundamentally coerced into working for capitalists because they lack the basic freedom that others enjoy at their expense. This shift transformed the critique of capitalism from a technical economic argument into a moral one about power and autonomy.
Perhaps his most provocative contribution was his inquiry into the personal lives of egalitarians. In his 1996 Gifford Lectures, published as If You're an Egalitarian, How Come You're So Rich?, Cohen pushed past abstract political theory to examine how egalitarian principles should influence individual conduct. He was known for his flamboyant, uncompromising style in debate, often bringing private or bizarre details into public discourse to challenge his peers. Despite his intellectual rigor, he remained a 'technological conservative' who personally abjured modern technology, relying on his wife, Michèle, to handle his email.
Cohen’s legacy is carried forward by a generation of influential students, including Will Kymlicka and Seana Shiffrin. He died in 2009 at age 68, leaving behind a body of work that continues to force philosophers to reconcile their public ideals with their private realities. His life was defined by a relentless drive to solve conceptual problems, ensuring that Marx’s intuition regarding the lack of freedom under capitalism remains a subject of serious, ongoing philosophical attention.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: G. A. Cohen
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