18 is an impressionable age. Age 18 I heard Jerry Cohen lecture, had tutorials with him and learnt from him. This month he died,
Emeritus Professor at Oxford, UK, and a Fellow of All Souls, having held one of the grandest chairs in philosophy, the Chichele Professorship of Social and Political Theory
Cohen was a Marxist all his life. He examined Marx’s theories by the light of contemporary analytical philosophy, and with the perspective of the history of philosophy.
He was also utterly authentic. My 18-year-old self had no idea of the validity of his arguments (not sure that I do now!). But with an adolescent sixth sense, I knew he was real, authentic, ethical, and that he cared.
So, a grand Marxist philosopher surely had little time for spirituality? or developmental theories, or the study of consciousness?
Well, I know he came to love art, sculpture and architecture. I also know he had a radical line on conservatism. He wrote a paper called “A Truth in conservatism: Rescuing conservatism from the Conservatives”, in which he says: “A conservative regulation gives life continuity. We cannot reinvent ourselves, or our language, or anything that really matters, every day according to what our resources now are and what our opportunities now are. We cannot keep everything ‘under review’.” Then he goes on to bash Conservatives.
Conservatism isn’t consciousness, let alone spirituality of course. However, recently I learnt that towards the end of his life he became fascinated with Christianity. Of course he remained a Jew – always a Jew, but he came to believe that outer change could not be achieved without inner change first.
So, Britain’s greatest Marxist philosopher, and a leading world philosopher, came to believe that inner change is the pre-requisite to all real change! No wonder I was so impressed with him at 18.
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