View source for Biography:Paul Cockshott

{{Short description|Scottish computer scientist and economist}}
{{Infobox scientist
| image             = Paul cockshott new book.jpg
| caption           = 
| birth_date        = {{birth date and age|1952|3|16|df=y}}
| birth_place       = [[Place:Edinburgh|Edinburgh]], Scotland, {{wipe|United Kingdom}}
| name              = William Paul Cockshott
| nationality       = Scottish, British
| fields            = [[Computer science]]<br>[[Finance:Marxian economics|Marxian economics]]
| work_institution  = [[Organization:University of Glasgow|University of Glasgow]]
| alma_mater        = Manchester University <small>(BaEcon)</small><br>Heriot Watt University <small>(MSc)</small><br>Edinburgh University <small>([[Social:Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]])</small>
| website           = {{URL|paulcockshott.wordpress.com}}
}}
{{Marxism|philosophy}}
'''William Paul Cockshott''' (born 16 March 1952) is a Scottish academic in the fields of [[Computer science|computer science]] and [[Finance:Marxian economics|Marxist economics]]. He is a Reader at the [[Organization:University of Glasgow|University of Glasgow]]. Since 1993 he has authored multiple works in the tradition of [[Social:Scientific socialism|scientific socialism]], most notably ''[[Towards a New Socialism]]'' and ''How the World Works''.

== Scientific career ==
Cockshott earned a BA in Economics (1974) from Manchester University, an MSc (1976) in Computer Science from Heriot Watt University and a PhD in Computer Science from Edinburgh University (1982).<ref name=cv>{{cite web|url=http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~wpc/reports/cv.html |title=Curriculum Vitae |last=Cockshott |first=Paul |website=Glasgow University}}</ref>

He has made contributions in the fields of [[Image compression|image compression]], [[Engineering:3D television|3D television]], parallel compilers and [[Medicine:Medical imaging|medical imaging]], but became known to a wider audience for his proposals in the multi-disciplinary area of [[Social:Economic calculation problem|economic computability]], most notably as co-author, along the [[Social:Economist|economist]] {{interlanguage link|Allin Cottrell|lt=Allin F. Cottrell|de}}, of the book ''[[Towards a New Socialism]]'', in which they strongly advocate the use of [[Cybernetics|cybernetics]] for efficient and democratic planning of a complex socialist economy.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|first1=Allin |last1=Cottrell |first2=W. Paul |last2=Cockshott |url=http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/~cottrell/socialism_book/index.html |title=Towards a new socialism |location=Nottingham, England |publisher=Spokesman |date=1993 |access-date=17 March 2012}}</ref>

He proposes a moneyless socialist economy, akin to [[Biography:Karl Marx|Karl Marx's]] description of a socialist society in ''Critique of the Gotha Programme'', realized by today's computer technology: 
{{cquote|In our proposal people would be paid not in money but with nontransferable electronic work accounts. Purchases would be made with smart cards as they are today, but with the difference that the only way people could accumulate work credits would be by actually working. The more hours you work the more credits you get. Goods in the shops would then be priced in hours, and the exchange principle is basically one for one. For one hour of work you get goods that took one hour to make.|author=Paul Cockshott, ''How the World Works''<ref name="Cockshott 2020">{{cite book|first1=Paul |last1=Cockshott |title=How the World Works: The Story of Human Labor from Prehistory to the Modern Day |publisher=Monthly Review Press |date=2020 |isbn=978-1-58367-777-3 |pages=316}}</ref>}}

== Political views ==
In the 1970s, Cockshott was a member of the British and Irish Communist Organisation, but he and several other members became unhappy with B&ICO's position on [[Social:Workers' control|workers' control]].<ref name="mia">[http://www.marxists.org/history/erol/uk.hightide/whatiscobi.htm What is the Communist Organisation in the British Isles?] in ''Proletarian'', No. 1, c. 1974.</ref> Cockshott and several other B&ICO members resigned and formed a new party, the Communist Organisation in the British Isles.<ref name="mia"/>

Cockshott advocates for a system of a [[Finance:Non-monetary economy|moneyless economy]] based on a computerized [[Social:Planned economy|planned economy]] and [[Philosophy:Direct democracy|direct democracy]].<ref name=":0" /> He has criticized the [[Social:Economic calculation problem|economic calculation problem]] on the grounds that planning can be made feasible via computerization and allocation based on [[Finance:Socially necessary labour time|labor time]].<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite book|last=Cockshott |first=Paul |title=Calculation, Complexity And Planning: The Socialist Calculation Debate Once Again}}</ref>

== Published works ==
*Cockshott, P. (1990). ''Ps-Algol Implementations: Applications in Persistent Object Oriented Programming'', Ellis Horwood Ltd. {{ISBN|978-0745808277}}
*Cockshott, P. (1990). ''A Compiler Writer's Toolbox: Interactive Compilers for PCs With Turbo Pascal'', Ellis Horwood Ltd. {{ISBN|978-0131737907}}
*Cockshott, P., Cottrell, A. (1993). ''[[Towards a New Socialism]]'', Spokesman. {{ISBN|978-0851245454}}
*Cockshott, P., Renfrew K. (2004). ''SIMD Programming Manual for Linux and Windows'', Springer. {{ISBN|978-1852337940}}
*Cockshott, P. (2010). ''Transition to 21st Century Socialism in the European Union'', Lulu. {{ISBN|978-1445715070}}
*Cockshott, P. (2011). ''Glasgow Pascal Compiler with vector extensions'', Lulu. {{ISBN|978-1447761563}}
*Cockshott, P., Zachariah, D. (2012). ''Arguments for Socialism'', Lulu. {{ISBN|978-1471658945}}
*Cockshott, P., Cottrell, A., Michaelson, G., Wright, I., Yakovenko, V. (2012). ''Classical Econophysics'', Routledge. {{ISBN|978-0415696463}}
*Cockshott, P., Mackenzie, L., Michaelson, G. (2015). ''Computation and its Limits'', Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-0198729129}}
*Cockshott, P. (2019). ''How the World Works: The Story of Human Labor from Prehistory to the Modern Day'', Monthly Review Press. {{ISBN|978-1-58367-777-3}}

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

== External links ==
* [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVBfIU1_zO-P_R9keEGdDHQ Paul Cockshott's YouTube channel]
* [https://paulcockshott.wordpress.com/ Paul Cockshott's blog]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U4e6ALxOhk "Paul Cockshott - Towards a new Socialism (1/3)"]. Video produced by Oliver Ressler on Paul Cockshott and his planned economy-model. [http://www.ressler.at/towardsa_new_socialism/ Transcription] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180226132600/http://www.ressler.at/towardsa_new_socialism/ |date=26 February 2018 }} of a video by O. Ressler, recorded in Glasgow, GB, 25 min., 2006
* [http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/~cottrell/socialism_book/new_socialism.pdf ''Towards a new socialism''], complete book download.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150104031024/https://mises.org/sites/default/files/qjae7_1_6.pdf Len Brewster on "Towards a new Socialism? by W. Paul Cockshott and Allin F. Cottrell. (Nottingham, U.K.: Spokesman Books, 1993)", Review Essay], ''The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics'', Vol.7, No.1 (Spring 2004): 65–77.; Paul Cockshott, [https://web.archive.org/web/20171118112245/http://reality.gn.apc.org/econ/replytobrewster.pdf "Notes for a critique of Brewster"] (20 June 2009).


{{DEFAULTSORT:Cockshott, Paul}}
[[Category:Marxist theorists]]

{{Sourceattribution|Paul Cockshott}}