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Marx on Freedom and Necessity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2010

Rodger Beehler
Rodger Beehler
Affiliation:
University of Victoria
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Extract

In a famous passage in volume three of Capital, Karl Marx distinguishes between a “realm of freedom” and a “realm of necessity”. The passage has attracted attention as seeming to register a dismal perception by Marx of the productive labour that will be necessary even under communism. “Dismal perception” is G. A. Cohen's verdict in his lucid essay “Marx's Dialectic of Labour”. Cohen has now softened the charge to “a somewhat gloomy perception”. But he continues to hold that the passage reveals Marx viewing even post-capitalist labour “as bound always to be unsatisfying”, a marked shift from Marx's optimistic 1840s view that under communism labour would be unalienating. The debate has recently been joined by James Klagge, who has argued against Cohen (and others) that the volume three passage does not disclose a shift in view, and so does not register a “deep pessimism” or “negative appraisal” by Marx of post-capitalist labour.

Type
Articles
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 28 , Issue 4 , Fall 1989 , pp. 545 - 552
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 1989

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References

1 Marx, Karl. Capital, vol. 3 (New York: International Publishers, 1977), 820.Google Scholar

2 Cohen, G. A.. “Marx's Dialectic of Labour”, Philosophy and Public Affairs 3 (1974), 235–261. The expression occurs at 260.Google Scholar

3 Cohen, G. A., History, Labour and Freedom (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988), 207.Google Scholar

4 Cohen, “Marx's Dialectic”, 260: Cohen, History, Labour and Freedom, 207.

5 Klagge, James C., “Marx's Realms of ‘Freedom’ and ‘Necessity’”, Canadian Journal of Philosophy 16 (1986), 769–777.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 McLellan, David, ed., Karl Marx: Selected Writings (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977), 569.Google Scholar

7 See note 1 above.

8 Cohen, “Marx's Dialectic”, 261; Cohen, History, Labour and Freedom, 207.

9 Cohen, History, Labour and Freedom, 208.

10 Cohen, “Marx's Dialectic”, 261; Cohen, History, Labour and Freedom, 208.

11 Cohen, “Marx's Dialectic”, 261; Cohen, History, Labour and Freedom, 208.

12 Klagge, “Marx's Realms”, 771.

13 Ibid., 774.

14 See note 6 above.

15 Klagge, “Marx's Realms”, 776.

16 Cohen, “Marx's Dialectic4”, 260–261; Cohen, History, Labour and Freedom, 207–208.

17 James Klagge and William H. Shaw both found it to be so in reacting briefly to a shorter version of this essay.

18 McLellan, , ed., Karl Marx: Selected Writings, 368.Google Scholar