From start to finish, a permanent invitation to fight lazy thinking and sloppy writing and a masterly demonstration of how to do it: straight to the difficult core of each issue; quite often with humor, most of the time with an explicit political engagement, always with impeccable intellectual honesty. The irreplaceable Jerry Cohen at his best.

G. A. Cohen was one of the most gifted,influential, and progressive voices in contemporary political philosophy. At the time of his death in 2oo9, he had plans to bring together a number of his most significant papers. This is the first of three volumes to realize those plans. Drawing on three decades of work, it contains previously uncollected articles that have shaped many of the central debates in political philosophy, as well as papers published here for the first time. In these pieces, Cohen asks what egalitarians have most reason to equalize, he considers the relationship between freedom and property, and he reflects upon ideal theory and political practice.

Included here are classic essays such as "Equality of What？" and "Capitalism,Freedom, and the Proletariat," along with more recent contributions such as "Fairness and Legitimacy injustice," "Freedom and Money," and the previously unpublished "How to Do Political Philosophy."On ample display throughout are the clarity, rigor, conviction, and wit for which Cohen was renowned. Together, these essays demonstrate how his work provides a powerful account of liberty and equality to the left of Ronald Dworkin, John Rawis,Amartya Sen, and Isaiah Berlin.

Editor's Preface

Acknowledgments

PART ONE: Luck Egalitarianism

 CHAPTER ONE On the Currency of Egalitarian Justice

 CHAPTER TWO Equality of What？ On Welfare, Goods, and Capabilities Afterword to Chapters One and Two

 CHAPTER THREE Sen on Capability, Freedom, and Control

 CHAPTER FOUR Expensive Taste Rides Again

 CHAPTER FIVE Luck and Equality

 CHAPTER SIX Fairness and Legitimacy in Justice,And: Does Option Luck Ever Preserve Justice？

PART TWO: Freedom and Property

 CHAPTER SEVEN Capitalism, Freedom, and the Proletariat

 CHAPTER EIGHT Freedom and Money

Two Addenda to "Freedom and Money"

PART THREE: Ideal Theory and Political Practice

 CHAPTER NINE Mind the Gap

 CHAPTER TEN Back to Socialist Basics

 CHAPTER ELEVEN How to Do Political Philosophy

 CHAPTER TWELVE Rescuing Justice from Constructivism and Equality from the Basic Structure Restriction

Works Cited

Index