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The Odyssey of Jon Elster
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2014
Extract
Jon Elster has made the story of Ulysses and the Sirens a central motif in his philosophical odyssey. In Elster's philosophy a paradigm of imperfectly rational behaviour is to bind yourself against the mast, as a precaution against the predictable weakness of your will which would otherwise leave you ensnared by the sirens. The use of literary analogies is frequent in Elster's work, whether he is Explaining Technical Change or Making Sense of Marx. Consequently it is not inappropriate to describe Elster's own intellectual wanderings as an odyssey. Unlike Joyce's Ulysses there is no trace in Elster of a predilection for scatological subjects, nor any danger of unreadability. But there is a similar technical and stylistic range, and a comparable breadth in intellectual debts, acquired from journeying through Western culture with several languages. Elster, like Joyce, is also crowned with the ability to make an artistic whole out of apparently disparate materials.
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References
1 Ulysses and the Sirens, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1979, p. viii.
2 Leibniz et la Formation de PEsprit Capitaliste, Paris, Aubier-Montaigne, 1975; Logic and Society, Chichester, Wiley, 1978; Ulysses and the Sirens, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1979; Sour Grapes, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1983; Making Sense of Marx, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1985; An Introduction to Karl Marx, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1986; edited Rational Choice, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1986; edited Karl Marx, A Reader, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press; and edited with A. Hylland, Foundations of Social Choice Theory, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
3 See inter alia ‘A note on hysteresis in the social sciences’, Synthese, 33, 1976, pp.371–91; ‘Exploring exploitation’. Journal of Peace Research, 15, pp. 3–17; ‘Review of Cohen’s Karl, G. A. Marx’s Theory of History’, Political Studies, 28, 1980, pp. 121–8Google Scholar; ‘Reply to comments, in Symposium on Elster’, Inquiry 23, 1980, pp. 213–32; ‘Snobs’, review of P. Bourdieu’s La Distinction, London Review of Books, 3, 20, pp. 110–12; ‘Negation active et negation active: essai de sociologie ivanienne’, Archives Européennes de Sociologie, 21, pp. 329–49; ‘Roemer vs. Roemer’, Politics and Society, 11, 1982, pp. 363–74; ‘Marxism, functionahsm and game theory’, Theory and Society, 11, 1982, pp. 453–82; ‘Reply to comments’, Theory and Society, 12, 1983, pp. 111–20; ‘Exploitation, freedom and justice’, Nomos, xxvi, 1983, pp. 277–304; ‘The Contradictions of Modern Societies’, (review of M. Olson, The Rise and Decline of Nations), Government and Opposition, Vol. 19 no. 3, 1984, pp. 304–11.
4 See inter alia ‘Some conceptual problems in political theory’, in ed. Barry, B., Power and Political Theory, Chichester, Wiley, pp. 245–70Google Scholar, and ‘Sour grapes’ in ed. Sen, A. and Williams, B., Utilitarianism and Beyond, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
5 Apart from Elster’s Making Sense of Marx two other texts have appeared in this series so far, Przeworski’s, Adam, Capitalism and Social Democracy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1985 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Roemer, John (ed.). Analytical Marxism, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1986 Google Scholar.
6 Elster, J., review of Cohen, G., Karl Marx’s Theory of History, Political Studies, 28, 1980, pp. 121–8Google Scholar; G. Cohen, ‘Functional explanation: reply to Elster’, Political Studies;]. Elster, ‘Marxism, Functionalism and Game Theory’, Theory and Society, Cohen, G., ‘Reply to Elster’, Theory and Society, 11, 1982, pp. 483–96Google Scholar, J. Elster: Reply to comments, Theory and Society, 12, pp. 111–20.
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9 It is curious that Elster adopts the view in Sour Grapes (p. 142) that self-deception is incoherent, without contrasting this judgment with his position in Ulysses and the Sirens (p. 172) where he promises to defend the common-sense view that people do sometimes deceive themselves.
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13 The quotation is from the inside cover of Making Sense of Marx.
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15 ibid., p 109.
16 ibid., p 55.
17 ibid., p 55.
18 ibid., p 120.
19 ibid., p 160.
20 ibid., p 161.
21 ibid., p 460.
22 There are exceptions. Elster on occasion twists Marx’s writings. For instance, he cites a passage where Marx discusses the antagonism between English and Irish workers and comments critically that ‘Ruling classes can exploit prejudices but they cannot create them’ — Making Sense of Marx, pp. 21 - 2. Elster’s comment is generally true, but is not a valid criticism of the passage from Marx he has just cited. Marx explicitly refers to the conflict between the English and Irish workers as being ‘artificially kept alive and intensified’ by the ruling class. Marx agrees with Elster that the ruling class in this case had not created, but rather had taken advantage of existing intra-class antagonisms.
23 Introduction to Karl Marx, p. 39.
24 ibid., p. 196.
25 Roemer, J., A General Theory of Exploitation and Class, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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27 John Roemer, ‘Should Marxists be interested in exploitation?’ in J. Roemer (ed.) op. cit.
28 If they continue in this vein Analytical Marxists are well on the road to becoming neo-Weberians, much like the Althusserian sociologists pilloried by Parkin, F., Marxism and Class Theory: A Bourgeois Critique, Oxford University Press, 1979 Google Scholar.
29 A. Przeworski, Capitalism and Social Democracy, 1985.
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31 Making Sense of Marx, p. 309.
32 Personal correspondence.
33 Introduction to Karl Marx, p. 199
34 Making Sense of Marx, p. 531.
35 ‘Socialism’, review of John Dunn’s The Politics of Socialism, London Review of Books, 15 Nov—6 Dec, 1984.
* I would like to thank A. Beattie, P. Dunleavy, G.Jones, T. Nossiter, K. Minogue, R. Richardson and D. Ruben, who have made this article better than it would otherwise be. They are not accountable for its contents.