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G. A. Cohen’s pathbreaking book, Karl Marx‘s Theory of History: A Defence (1978), prompted extensive reconsideration of historical materialism. This effort recast ongoing debates about Marx‘s theory of history by defending the view that historical materialism embodies a set of substantive claims as appropriately subject to analytical scrutiny as those of any other viable theory. Specifically, Cohen advances one central substantive claim that summarizes his reading of the “Preface” to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. “History is, fundamentally, (...) |
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In Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence (1978), G. A. Cohen has developed a distinctively functionalist interpretation of historical materialism. In this paper I outline Cohen's novel reconstruction of Marx and subject it to two independent internal criticisms. I first argue that explanations cannot conform to Cohen's functionalist model. I then suggest that even if there could be explanations having the structure he has proposed, they would fail to be helpful in illuminating the causal kernel of Marx's theory. Finally (...) |
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This paper argues that the philosophy of explanation can help inform core debates in value theory. Specifically, it argues that there is a consistent parallelism between the properties of explanation and the properties of justification such that one can reasonably infer that any property of explanation has a counterpart property of justification. Thus, by appealing to facts about the nature of explanation, one can derive various conclusions about the justifications offered by normative theorists. The paper illustrates this point by considering (...) |
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The theory of historical materialism is the core commitment of Marx’s social theory. More than his views on markets, philosophical methods, the state and social institutions, it is this theory which sets Marx’s views apart from alternative traditions in political philosophy. Marx believes that there is a tendency for societies to make moral and material progress. The point of Marx’s theory of historical materialism is to offer a theory of the mechanisms which produce this tendency. However, in Marx’s own formulation, (...) |
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Le philosophe Gerald A. Cohen est décédé le 5 août 2009. Sa contribution s’est d’abord articulée autour de la pensée de Marx. Elle émergea sur la scène intellectuelle en 1978 avec la parution de Karl Marx’s Theory of History : A Defence, qui impulsa la constitution du marxisme analytique. Par la suite, Cohen tendit à se détacher progressivement de la théorie de Marx. Il participa à la discussion sur le concept libertarien de propriété de soi en vue de l’associer à (...) |
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On a familiar conception of the business of ethics, we are set to produce theories which codify our intuitive conception of values. And on this conception, the notion of a theory is that of an account which, in providing the epistemological backing to our intuitive evaluations, overrules our intuitive grasp of our moral lives. An intuitionist faces a dilemma: Without an epistemological backing intuitions of value seem unsuited to deliver moral truth, and yet if a theoretical backing is provided this (...) |
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This paper guides the reader through the use of functions in contemporary legal philosophy: in developing those philosophies and through methodological debates over their proper role. This paper is broken into two sections. In the first I canvass the role of functions in the legal philosophies of several mid to late twentieth century Anglo-American general jurisprudents whose theories are still common topics of discussion: Ronald Dworkin, H.L.A. Hart, Lon L. Fuller, John Finnis, and Joseph Raz. In the second, I examine (...) |
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This paper is a critical examination of one central theme in Jon Elster's Making Sense of Marx; Elster's defense of ?methodological individualism? in social science and his related critique of Marx's use of ?functional explanation?. The paper does not quarrel with Elster's claim that the particular instances of functional explanation advanced by Marx are defective; what it criticizes is Elster's attempt to raise principled, philosophical objections to this type of explanation in the social sciences. It is argued that Elster's philosophical (...) |
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The postwar period has been marked by a problematization of nations and nationalism: these phenomena, which were previously assumed to be natural products of evolution, have received a growing amount of attention from social theory. First an attempt was made to debunk nationalist constructions, and then a `primordialist' reaction defended the nation. Explanatory theory has however been held back due to vagueness regarding key categories such as culture, agency, rationality and motivations. Nationalism studies must be clearer in its use of (...) |
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The ArgumentA scientific work presupposes a body of texts that are a condition for its intelligibility. This paper shows that the study of intertextual reference — of the ways a text indicates its relation to other texts — provides a fruitful perspective in the study of science that deserves more attention than it has hitherto received. The paper examines intertextual reference in early nineteenth-century mathematics, first surveying a variety of mathematical texts in the period and then examining in detail W.R. (...) |
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In the first chapter of Karl Marx's Theory of History, G. A. Cohen contrasts Marx's image of history with Hegel's, contrasts, that is, a powerful form of historical idealism with historical materialism. Historical idealism stresses the “dominion of thought” ; social change, on such an account, is to be explained principally in terms of changes in consciousness, the course of history being determined by fundamental ruling ideas and conceptions. This view is to be contrasted with historical materialism. The central vision (...) |
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This paper intends to provide a short assessment on how Marx and Weber approached social inequality. The assessment is conducted using evolutionary rationality. Even though Marx and Weber had seemingly contrasting approaches, I argue that in reality both are complementary and can be better understood using Darwinian evolutionary theory or “Universal Darwinism” as the locus in which the two rationalities described formation processes based on competition for the survival of social forces and the crafting of adaptive and advantageous strategies that (...) |
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