Self-ownership, freedom, and equality /:

In this book G.A. Cohen examines the libertarian principle of self-ownership, which says that each person belongs to himself and therefore owes no service or product to anyone else. This principle is used to defend capitalist inequality, which is said to reflect each person's freedom to do as a...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Cohen, G. A. (Gerald Allan), 1941-2009 (Author)
Format: Electronic eBook
Language:English
Published: Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press : Maison des Sciences de l'homme, 1995.
Series:Studies in Marxism and social theory.
Subjects:
Online Access:DE-862
DE-863
Summary:In this book G.A. Cohen examines the libertarian principle of self-ownership, which says that each person belongs to himself and therefore owes no service or product to anyone else. This principle is used to defend capitalist inequality, which is said to reflect each person's freedom to do as as he wishes with himself. The author argues that self-ownership cannot deliver the freedom it promises to secure, thereby undermining the idea that lovers of freedom should embrace capitalism and the inequality that comes with it. He goes on to show that the standard Marxist condemnation of exploitation implies an endorsement of self-ownership, since, in the Marxist conception, the employer steals from the worker what should belong to her, because she produced it. Thereby a deeply inegalitarian notion has penetrated what is in aspiration an egalitarian theory. Purging that notion from socialist thought, he argues, enables construction of a more consistent egalitarianism.
Physical Description:1 online resource (x, 277 pages) : illustrations
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (pages 266-271) and indexes.
ISBN:9781461949114
1461949114
9780511521270
0511521278
9780511962448
0511962444

There is no print copy available.

Get full text