On Self-ownership:Cohen And Marx

The rightist Liberalist Nozick puts forward the theory of "self-ownership" in his book "Anarchy,State and Utopia",and its brief point is that human has ownership of himself and his abilities.Under the condition of not signing any contract,an individual or an organization may not dominate or force others to do anything.The core of this theory aims at justifying the inequality of capitalism.And as a firm socialist believer,G.A.Cohen is trying to refute all the self theories,and he also justified for Marx's theory.In this paper,the author tries to state the origin and connotation of "self ownership" and "ownership" starting from the view of Nozick,a left-wing liberal.Based on this,it clarifies the challenges,which are brought by "self-ownership"theory to Marxism,and then the article state the attempt of Cohen as a firm "socialist believer" for these "criticism" from the liberals.Finally,Cohen did not fundamentally refute all the self theories,but in the contrast,he thought that "directly denying self theory is not meant to support slavery,to abolish human autonomy,to regard man as a objective,and to regard man as a method.All of these will endanger autonomy and do not prevent the behavior of utilitarian use of others.Meanwhile,Cohen also thought that,although it is impossible to completely refute all the self theories,it can be applied to clear its charm through logical proof.In some sense,Cohen holds a compromise on all the self theories,or Cohen is trying to suspend the theory of "self-ownership".Under the background of Nozick,the theory of "self-ownership" implies the principle of primitive possession of the external world,that is,everyone can acquire external resources,and the principle that a large numbers of distributive inequalities it may form.At the time of Cohen's refutation,Cohen raised a proposition "world ownership" or "the common ownership of the outside world",in lieu of Nozick's "theentire outside world" hypothesis.Moreover,in order to achieve the goal of equality,he found that,through this kind of assumption,on the one hand,he achieved the critical objective of the critics,so that the liberals will fall into the conflict,"because under this kind of economy,many people have no real content of self-ownership." On the other hand,his hypothesis is also hoped to form a refutation of Marx and Marxist,that is,Marxist doctrine to equality and autonomy,it must give up self,and "left-wing liberals " differentiated to some extent.Cohen suggested that Marx and Marxism did not pull away from the left-wing liberals in two areas,the first field is Marx's injustice criticism of the capitalist system as well as Cohen's criticism of this part is mainly concentrated in the labor value theory with the concept of exploitation.The second field is the thought of Marx on the future ideal society,and Cohen's criticism of this part is more centered on the material basis and the main body of realizing the ideal society.Through criticism of the two fields,Cohen drew a conclusion that Marx has not only realized that all the self theories,which are the internal basis of liberalism,but instead he regarded all the theories as its own theoretical premise.In Cohen's opinion,Marx seems to have always kept an ambiguous attitude on "self",and it goes without saying that Marx supported "self" to certain extent.Marx's "self-objection" is an abstract "self-owned" idea and theory,and the "self-owned" which supported by him is the basis of labor ownership,and that is labor ownership.It is also determined that Marx recognise "self" in some sense,we can carry out the criticism and the anti-criticism on Cohen in two areas.In the first field,Cohen criticized Marx with regard to labor value theory and exploitation theory.In fact,Cohen's accusations are unjust.First of all,Cohen split the relationship between "values of the entity" and "value",confused the using value and value,the critical role of exploitation theory is not doubt.Secondly,the so-called "innocent capitalism" is just the Cohen's miscarriage of justice;the innocent capitalism is not "innocent." In the second field,Cohen criticizes the realistic foundation and theoretical basis of realizing "good society".However,substantially,the thought of Marx's ideal society is not a static state but a movement that historical revolution criticism tends to the other side constantly.Therefore,Cohen's criticism on "perfect society" automatically disappeared.