NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A lecture series at Vanderbilt University will be
the first since the death of John Rawls to examine the legacy of the
most important political philosopher of the 20th century.
Ronald Dworkin, professor of philosophy and Frank Henry Sommer
Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, begins the
seven-installment series with an address on "Rawls and Legal Theory."
He will speak at noon on Friday, Dec. 5, in the Moore Room of
Vanderbilt Law School.
The presentation by Dworkin and all seven events through April are
free and open to the public. Lecturers will confer privately with
Vanderbilt philosophy students during their visits.
"The public lectures will be pitched to generalist audiences," said
Robert B. Talisse, assistant professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt and
author of On Rawls, a primer on the work of John Rawls. "We have asked
our speakers to presume no background in philosophy, and show
interested persons how the work of this philosopher had incredible
influence on our institutions and our lives."
Rawls, who died Nov. 24, 2002, was the James Bryant Conant
University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University. He set forth two
basic principles of political philosophy in his 1971 book A Theory of
Justice that stand as landmarks today, even among those who question
them.
The first principle is that every person should enjoy as much
personal liberty as is consistent with everyone having an equal share.
The second says that economic inequality is tolerable only insofar as
it benefits the least well-off in society.
Rawls argued that these principles of justice would be the outcome
of a free and fair agreement among persons who were temporarily denied
information about their personal interests and talents. He called that
mindset the "veil of ignorance."
A follow-up book in 1993, Political Liberalism, softened Rawls’
stance. In the first book, he defended his two principles as the only
rational choices. In Political Liberalism, he said he’d been too
ambitious in insisting his two principles would ensure justice in any
scenario.
"Certainly, not everybody agrees with Rawls," Talisse said. "But
everybody working in the field of political theory has to position
themselves relative to what Rawls said."
Stern critics of Rawls’ work dot the guest list for the lecture
series, which will try to access his contributions and in some cases,
refute them.
All lectures are at noon in the Moore Room of Vanderbilt Law School. Scheduled speakers are:
Jan. 26: Michael Sandel, the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor at Harvard University
Feb. 9: Susan Okin, the Martha Sutton Professor of Ethics at Stanford University
March 1: Philip Pettit, the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Politics at Princeton University
March 15: Russell Hardin, professor of political theory and political economy at New York University
April 5: Kenneth Binmore, professor of economics at University College London
April 19: Chantal Mouffe, the Quintin Hogg Research Fellow in Politics at the University of Westminster
"These are all people who have written very influentially about
Rawls, and all of them have engaged Rawls personally and in print over
the years," Talisse said. "They all wanted this opportunity to
re-access and rethink and project into the future what’s next, after
Rawls."
The lecture series is sponsored by Vanderbilt Law School and the College of Arts and Science at Vanderbilt.
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
Jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu