3 ms·
John Rawls made a mind-blowing mistake of not considering people outside of one's society as worthy of consideration. His "veil of ignorance" (original idea by
by yboris 5y ago
John Rawls made a mind-blowing mistake of not considering people outside of one's society as worthy of consideration.
His "veil of ignorance" (original idea by John Harsanyi not by Rawls) is great - but it focuses on one's society, ignoring the plight of the worst-off in other countries. Shame.
- jonnycomputer 5y agoCan you provide a reference or quote that substantiates this? The word "society" is polysemous, so its not obvious to me that he meant any particular nation, or political unit, and not humanity as a whole.
- woodruffw 5y ago> John Rawls made a mind-blowing mistake of not considering people outside of one's society as worthy of consideration. I think this is a shortsighted reading of Rawls. AToJ refers specifically to societies and states because (some of) Rawls' ethical foundations begin in Piaget's tradition of social moral education, but nothing about either the Original Position or Veil of Ignorance is itself bound to a particular state or society. Indeed, there's a thriving field of International Distributive Justice[1] that directly traces its lineage back to Rawls. No particular societal reference point is necessary. (As a complete note, I'd actually argue an even stronger point: that Rawls is fundamentally a cosmopolitan ethicist, in the same tradition as (and building off of) Kant's thought in Perpetual Peace. But that's an entire tangent.) [1]: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/international-justice/ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/international-justice/
- klaudius 5y agoIt's also ignoring other species.