Staying home
G.A. Cohen and the motivational basis of socialism
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7274754 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Norman Geras (University of Manchester, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 234-246 |
| Publication date | 2013-04-16 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Contemporary Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1356-9775 • E-ISSN: 1469-3631 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13569775.2013.785834 |
| OpenAlex | W2046652008 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 4 |
This article considers the motivational supports that might be thought necessary and also possible for socialism. It does this by way of a critique of G.A. Cohen's Why not socialism? The article begins by briefly summarizing the argument of that book, then goes on to identify a logical tension in Cohen's presentation of the socialist – at once egalitarian and communal – ethos of the camping trip (as assessed against a sixfold typology of person-to-person relations), and from this tension, as well as from independent evidence, it calls into question Cohen's hope that people might come to regard and treat each other on a society-wide scale in the same way they regard and treat their camping-trip companions. The postscript asks whether the camping trip ideal would be desirable for society even if it were feasible, and then suggests why it might not
Argument (complex analysis · Economics · Epistemology · Ethos · Ideal (ethics · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Presentation (obstetrics · Scale (ratio · Socialism · Sociology · Typology · Anthropology · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.4 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2021 - 2025 (5) |
| Highly cited | No |