Political Philosophy & John Rawls
Audio recording of a lecture by Jonathan Wolff on John Rawls' political philosophy. After discussing the detrimental influence of logical positivism on ethical and political discourse, Jonathan Wolff goes on to explain John Rawls' famous contractarian conception of justice. Rawls' argument takes the form of a thought experiment involving a hypothetical contract in which people are made ignorant about certain facts about themselves which could bias them in their own favor (e.g. their race, gender, class, age, talents, etc.). In this way, ignorance is used as a way to guarantee impartiality in deciding how societies should be set up. After all, one cannot rig things up to benefit oneself if one doesn't know what one's interests are or what one's position in society will be. Rawls argued that people behind this so-called "veil of ignorance" would agree to two principles of justice: the liberty principle and the difference principle. Jonathan Wolf explains these principles and the main arguments for and against them. (My Summary)
Note, this is re-upload. More details about this talk will be added at a later date.
More Political Philosophy: • Social & Political Philosophy
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