The Production of Equality

Gerald Allan Cohen

1995 to 1996

University of Edinburgh

This series presents an introspective consideration on the nature of Marxism and egalitarianism in today’s society and how the people how hold to these claims can justify their role in society. He examines the implications, both political and moral, of the socialist spectrum ranging from Marxism on one side to morally guided individual socialist decisions on the other with a keen look at Rawlsian liberalism in the middle.

Books

If You're an Egalitarian, How Come You're So Rich?

Available Chapters

Preface

Prospectus

1. Paradoxes of Conviction

2. Politics and Religion in a Montreal Communist Jewish Childhood

3. The Development of Socialism from Utopia to Science

4. Hegel in Marx

5. The Opium of the People

6. Equality

7. Ways That Bad Things Can Be Good

8. Justice Incentives and Selfishness

9. Where the Action Is

10. Political Philosophy and Personal Behavior

Envoi

Bibliography

Credits

Harvard University Press

2000

G. A. Cohen begins this publication of the Gifford Lectures of 1996 by asking the audience to consider the effect of upbringing on the final position any individual takes in life and how his personal experiences from being raised in a fervently Marxist and anti-religious home have led him to a surprising shift from Marxism out the other side of radical liberalism to a strong belief in the necessity of social and moral element to socialism more akin to the Judeo-Christian treatment of the issue of equality.

Contributor(s)