Dr Jan Kandiyali jan.kandiyali@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor in Political Theory
What makes communism possible? The self-realisation interpretation
Kandiyali, Jan
Authors
Abstract
In the Critique of Gotha Programme, Karl Marx famously argues that a communist society will be characterised by the principle, ‘From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs!’ I take up a question about this principle that was originally posed by G.A. Cohen, namely: what makes communism (so conceived) possible for Marx? In reply to this question, Cohen interprets Marx as saying that communism is possible because of limitless abundance, a view that Cohen takes to be implausible for ecological reasons. I develop a new interpretation of Marx's position. On this interpretation, people in communist society achieve self-realisation through providing others with the goods and services required for their self-realisation. Coupled with a reasonably high (but not immense) development of productive power, self-realisation generates conditions in which people can produce according to their abilities and receive according to their needs. I defend this view as an interpretation of Marx and I argue that it represents a more plausible account of what makes communism possible than Cohen's interpretation in which technological advance and limitless abundance play the predominant role.
Citation
Kandiyali, J. (2024). What makes communism possible? The self-realisation interpretation. Politics, Philosophy & Economics, 23(3), 273-294. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470594x231219764
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Nov 1, 2023 |
Online Publication Date | Dec 25, 2023 |
Publication Date | 2024-08 |
Deposit Date | Dec 1, 2023 |
Publicly Available Date | Jan 3, 2024 |
Journal | Politics, Philosophy & Economics |
Print ISSN | 1470-594X |
Electronic ISSN | 1741-3060 |
Publisher | SAGE Publications |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 23 |
Issue | 3 |
Pages | 273-294 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1177/1470594x231219764 |
Keywords | abundance, communism, G.A. Cohen, Karl Marx, self-realisation |
Public URL | https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1965504 |
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Published Journal Article
(314 Kb)
PDF
Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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