Self-Ownership, Freedom, and Equality (Studies in Marxism and Social Theory) by G. A. Cohen

Author:G. A. Cohen [Cohen, G. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1995-10-25T13:00:00+00:00

It is necessary:

to prolong man’s life to 150–200 years on the average, to wipe out infectious diseases, to reduce non-infectious diseases to a minimum, to conquer old age and fatigue, to learn to restore life in case of untimely, accidental death; to place at the service of man all the forces of nature, the energy of the sun, the wind and subterranean heat, to apply atomic energy in industry, transport and construction, to learn how to store energy and transmit it, without wires, to any point; to predict and render completely harmless natural calamities: floods, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes;

to produce in factories all the substances known on earth, up to most complex -protein – and also substances unknown in nature: harder than diamonds, more heat-resistant than fire-brick, more refractory than tungsten and osmium, more flexible than silk and more elastic than rubber;

to evolve new breeds of animals and varieties of plants that grow more swiftly and yield more meat, milk, wool, grain, fruit, fibres, and wood for man’s needs; to reduce, adapt for the needs of life and conquer unpromising areas, marshes, mountains, deserts, taiga, tundra, and perhaps even the sea bottom; to learn to control the weather, regulate the wind and heat, just as rivers are regulated now, to shift clouds at will, to arrange for rain or clear weather, snow or hot weather.

It goes without saying that even after coping with these magnificent and sweeping tasks, science will not have reached the limits of its potentialities. There is no limit, nor can there be any, to the inquiring human mind, to the striving of man to put the forces of nature at his service, to divine all nature’s secrets (pp. 876–7).

40 Law and Marxism, p. 160.

41 I need not claim that the scenario that I myself project (see pp. 128–9 above) involves no change in human psychology.

42 For a challenging critique of an earlier version of the preceding sections of this chapter, see Keith Graham’s ‘Self-Ownership, Communism and Equality’, my reply to which is available on request.

43 Lukes, Marxism and Morality, p. 98.

44 Marx and Engels, ‘Circular Letter Against Kriege’, p. 41. Cf. The German Ideology, p. 439: ‘The individuals’ consciousness of their mutual relations . . . will no more be the “principle of love” or denouement than it will be egoism.’

45 See my Karl Marx’s Theory of History: A Defence, pp. 125–9, on how, according to Marx, antagonism between individuals leads to sociality in alienated forms.

46 See Lukes, Marxism and Morality, pp. 97–8. The passage from The German Ideology which Lukes quotes at p. 98 has nothing to do with socializing the individuals.

47 Preface to The Critique of Political Economy, p. 183.

48 The Grundrisse, p. 705. For similar phrasing, see ibid., p. 832.

49 For this different interpretation of ‘social individuality’, see, further, David Archard, ‘The Marxist Ethic of Self-Realisation’, pp. 28ff.; and Will Kymlicka, Liberalism, Community, and Culture, pp. 114–19. The socialization of the individual, as interpreted by those authors, is related to the notion of

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