NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A lecture series at Vanderbilt University
examining the legacy of John Rawls, considered by many to be the most
important philosopher of the 20th century, next features his most
prominent critic.
Michael Sandel, the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor at Harvard
University, delivers the second of seven Rawls lectures at noon on Jan.
26.
Sandel’s lecture, "Rawls, Liberalism and Justice," will be held in
the Moore Room of Vanderbilt Law School. It is free and open to the
public.
Sandel teaches a legendary course on justice at Harvard, which attracts more than 300 students most semesters.
"Sandel is one of the most careful and incisive critics of Rawls,"
said Robert B. Talisse, assistant professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt
and author of On Rawls, a primer on the work of John Rawls.
"Sandel calls Rawls the best example of a dominant tradition in
political theory," Talisse said, "then he argues that it is rotten, and
says we have to go another way.
"Amazingly, Rawls and Sandel seemed to have liked each other very much, personally."
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."
Sandel argued in his book Liberalism and the Limits of Justice that the veil of ignorance was an unrealistic concept.
"He argued that we cannot understand ourselves in this way, that we
must regard ourselves as essentially tied to our interests, convictions
and relations to others," Talisse said. "Sandel then went on in his
second book, Democracy’s Discontent, to spin out implications for
political theory once we realize we’re not the kind of selves that
Rawls envisioned. According to Sandel, a political theory focused
solely on justice must fail; other goods such as community, friendship
and solidarity must be central."
Rawls wrote a book in 1993, Political Liberalism, that softened some
of his stances, some believe in answer to the criticism of Sandel.
The lecture series, sponsored by Vanderbilt Law School and the
College of Arts and Science at Vanderbilt, is the first since Rawls’
death to examine his legacy. Lecturers will confer privately with
Vanderbilt philosophy students during their visits.
The remaining lectures in the series are:
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
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
Jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu