Good Morning Kossacks and Welcome to Morning Open Thread (MOT)
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John Rawls is considered one of the most influential moral and political philosophers of the 20th century and his opus, A Theory of Justice, is required reading for anyone wanting to understand fairness and justice in our modern world. The introductory portion of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy does a good job of nailing down the canvas of his intellectual endeavors and summarizes his areas of interest and influence.
John Rawls (b. 1921, d. 2002) was an American political philosopher in the liberal tradition. His theory of justice as fairness envisions a society of free citizens holding equal basic rights cooperating within an egalitarian economic system. His account of political liberalism addresses the legitimate use of political power in a democracy, aiming to show how enduring unity may be achieved despite the diversity of worldviews that free institutions allow. His writings on the law of peoples extend these theories to liberal foreign policy, with the goal of imagining how a peaceful and tolerant international order might be possible.
Rawls truly believed that political philosophy and civil discourse could lead to reasoned agreement in a divisive society; despite all indications and myriad examples, he counseled that understanding our political institutions and working for the greater good could heal a society caught in the grip of political and social unrest. He approached political philosophy as a way of orienting ourselves within our political arena and focusing our energies toward challenging the limits of the established political possibility. And he believed that through liberal political philosophy one could engage in
reconciliation with society and the institutions of political life.
The bad man desires arbitrary power. What moves the evil man is the love of injustice.
But it's Friday morning. The last thing we should have to do is discuss political philosophy or the redistributive theories of wealth and power. I bring up Mr. Rawls for only one reason this morning: he was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland and often cited that experience as formative and influential in his work on social justice.
Enjoy your day and have a wonderful weekend.
Grab your cup and pull up a chair.
What's on your mind this lovely morning?