"Brilliantly captures the essence of the socialist ethical complaint against market society.... A very timely book."

--HILLEL STEINER,

Is socialism desirable？ Is it possible？ In this book, one of the world's leading political philosophers presents a compelling moral case for socialism and argues that the obstacles in its way are exaggerated.

There are times, G. A. Cohen notes, when we all behave like socialists. On a camping trip, for example, we wouldn't dream of charging each other for fish that we happened to catch. Campers do not give merely to get, but relate to each other in a spirit of equality and community. Would such socialist norms be desirable across society as a whole？ Why not？ Whole societies may differ from camping trips, but it is still attractive when people treat each other with equal regard.

But, however desirable,many claim that socialism is impossible. Cohen writes that the biggest obstacle to socialism isn't, as often argued,intractable human selfishness--it's the lack of obvious means to harness the human generosity that is there.Lacking those means, we rely on the market. But there are many ways of confining the sway of the market: there are desirable changes that can move us toward a socialist society in which, to quote Albert Einstein, humanity has "overcome and advancedbeyond the predatory stage of human development."

I  The Camping Trip

II The Principles Realized on the Camping Trip

III Is the Ideal Desirable？

IV Is the Ideal Feasible？ Are the Obstacles to It Human Selfishness, or Poor Social Technology？

V  Coda

Acknowledgment