In this episode we finally get down and dirty with the big dog of Anglophone political philosophy, John Rawls. We discuss his 1993 book Political Liberalism, which expands on his earlier theory of justice to develop an account of the pluralistic tolerance at the heart of a liberal society characterized by the fact of a diversity of incommensurate but reasonable worldviews. We talk about what Rawlsian theory genuinely has going for it, but also pull no punches about the serious theoretical and practical limits to this most careful and aspirationally progressive exemplar of liberal political philosophy. But hey: don’t worry, we can tolerate a good liberal.
This is just a short clip from the full episode, which is available to our subscribers on Patreon:
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
John Rawls, Political Liberalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993).
Music:
Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com