Thinker · TH-0250
John Rawls
John Rawls was an American political philosopher who taught at Harvard for most of his career. A Theory of Justice (1971) revived social contract…
Also known as John Bordley Rawls
1921 – 2002 · Baltimore; Princeton; Cornell; Cambridge, Massachusetts
Traditions: Analytic
Schools: Social contract theory
John Rawls was an American political philosopher who taught at Harvard for most of his career. A Theory of Justice (1971) revived social contract theory by asking which principles people would choose in an original position, behind a veil of ignorance that hides their class, talents, race, sex and beliefs. He argued they would choose equal basic liberties and allow inequalities only when they benefit the least advantaged. His method of reflective equilibrium also shaped moral epistemology.
Key ideas
- Principles of justice are those that would be chosen in an original position behind a veil of ignorance.
- Each person has an equal right to the most extensive scheme of equal basic liberties compatible with the same for all.
- Social and economic inequalities are just only under fair equality of opportunity and only if they benefit the least advantaged (the difference principle).
- Reflective equilibrium: principles and considered judgements are adjusted to each other, and the equilibrium is always revisable.
Major works
- A Theory of Justice (1971)
- Political Liberalism (1993)
- The Law of Peoples (1999)
- Justice as Fairness: A Restatement (2001)
In the conversation
- Question Can someone explain Nozick’s Wilt Chamberlain argument and the strongest reply to it?
- Question How is Scanlon’s ‘reasonable rejection’ test different from asking what most people would agree to?
- Debate Justice should start from dependency, not from independent adults making a deal
- Reading group Reading group: G. A. Cohen’s Why Not Socialism?, a short book for a long argument
- Discussion The crane logs were falsified and reporting them might shut the terminal: what each theory told me
- Reading group Reading group: Eva Kittay’s Love’s Labor and the dependency critique of Rawls
- Discussion Reflective equilibrium or tidy prejudice? How a prison reading class changed my view on punishment
- Debate Nobody deserves their talents, and that settles more about pay than people admit
- Question Who is left out when morality is a bargain?
- Discussion Two people with the same income and different lives: a wheelchair user’s case for capabilities