On Cohen's Criticism Of Capitalist Freedom Thought From "Three Dimensions"

G.A.Cohen,as a representative person of analytical Marxism,criticized the thought of capitalism's freedom,which mainly focus on the views of Isaiah Berlin,Amartya Sen and Robert Nozick.And Cohen's criticisms are reflected in the following three dimensions respectively: freedom and money,freedom and capability,freedom and equality.Cohen's criticism of Isaiah Berlin reflects the relationship between freedom and money from the view of economic freedom;and his criticism of Amartya Sen reflects the relationship between freedom and ability from the view of freedom to act;while Cohen's criticism of Robert Nozick embodied the relationship between freedom and equality from an abstract level of value.Among the three criticisms,Cohen focus on the criticism of Nozick's thought of liberal supremacy,and he attempts to prove that the conflicting value between freedom and equality can be compatible.Such three dimensions can provide us with a comprehensive and systematic view to grasp Cohen's interpretation and criticism of the thought of capitalist freedom,and these three dimensions are deepening from a concrete level to the abstract value level,which is a systematic way of combing and exploring Cohen's criticism of the thought of capitalist freedom from an innovative perspective.In the relationship between freedom and money,Cohen criticized Berlin's negative freedom.Cohen attaches great importance to the value of conditions of achieving freedom,such as resources,means and ability etc;while Berlin is more emphasis on the value of freedom itself.Cohen thinks that lacking of money means lacking of freedom itself;while Berlin considers lacking of money as a lack of resources,lack of means,rather than the lack of freedom itself.Obviously,Berlin emphasizes a kind of negative freedom that is free from the intervention of others,while Cohen focuses more on the possibilities of achieving positive freedom.Therefore,Berlin stands for the view of capitalist form of freedom.Cohen attempts to reveal the hypocrisy of such capitalist freedom,he advocates a substantive freedom that ensures realization of truly freedom in consequence from the perspective of positive freedom,and socialist freedom is such a concept of substantive freedom.In the relationship between freedom and ability,Amartya Sen considers substantive freedom as a kind of “capability” and his view on freedom denies the element of “control”.For Cohen,he thinks that Sen directly sees “capability” as a concept of freedom,and a person's capability determines the degree of his freedom.Cohen holds that this view is correct for the strict sense of the “capability”,but is obviously incorrect for “capability” that used for expressing the intermediate state between the basic good and the utility as the latter including much content that has nothing to do with freedom.In other words,Cohen believes that the concept of“capability” is ambiguous,and it should not be regarded as freedom itself.Besides,Cohen also focused on criticizing Sen's view of “freedom without control”,in Cohen's view,freedom is often accompanied by the element of “control”,and he stressed that the freedom without control cannot truly expresses the willingness of human agents conform to the outside world.Therefore,we can see that Cohen's substantive freedom is not the same as that of Sen's,but which is more thorough than Sen's substantive freedom,and is a kind of positive freedom with the element of “control”.In the relationship between freedom and equality,Nozick advocates a kind of capitalist freedom that supports the value of freedom taking precedence over the value of equality,which is called as liberal supremacy and this point of view was strongly criticized by Cohen.As Cohen attaches great importance to the value of equality,he thinks that the realization of freedom cannot be sacrificed at the expense of equality,and these two conflicting value could be compatible.Cohen has conducted an in-depth analysis and criticism of Nozick's view on the impossibilities of achieving identity between freedom and equality.For Cohen,he thinks that there is no substantial conflict between freedom and equality in Nozick's sense,and such a conflict could be resolved under the condition of joint-ownership of the world's resources.Cohen profoundly exposes the hypocrisy of capitalist freedom based on the principle of self-ownership,demonstrates that socialism which is characterized by the common ownership of the means of production can guarantee the common enjoyment of outside resources,and ensure the realization of true freedom on the basis of equality.Meanwhile,Cohen also pointed out that true freedom means autonomy when he was criticizing Nozick's view of self-ownership.Thus Cohen's view of freedom is a kind of autonomy that can be compatible with the value of equality,which is a typical idea of socialist freedom.Cohen's ultimate goal of criticizing the thought of capitalist freedom is to demonstrate that socialism is superior to capitalism,and such superiority is not only lies in that socialism is more equal,but also reflected in socialism can be more effective to protect the realization of substantive freedom,which is also the foothold and purpose of this paper.Meanwhile,Cohen's critique of the thought of capitalist freedom is also the process of the formation of the thought of freedom system of Cohen himself,which is a kind of socialism freedom essentially.In general,Cohen's freedom is a kind of positive freedom that based on the economic condition,which is also a substantive freedom that compatible with the factor of “control”,and is an autonomous freedom that can compatible with equality as well.Cohen's argument is in a way of progressive,Cohen's thought of socialist freedom embodied in the critique of capitalist freedom is an important part of his political philosophy.Cohen used the method of conceptual analysis to elaborate the concept of freedom,and used the method of logical analysis(such as proof,refutation,etc.)to criticize capitalist freedom.Meanwhile,Cohen also applied this research paradigm to the analysis of Marxist view of freedom,and this is a great development for the paradigm of Marxist view of freedom as well.This paper aims to try to use the method of analytic philosophy to sort out and explain Cohen's critique of capitalist freedom systematically,and reveals that the purpose of Cohen's critique is to demonstrate the superiority of socialism compared to capitalism.Besides,this paper also attempts to sort out the system of freedom of Cohen himself,and explores the relationship betweenCohen's thought and Marxist theory.