A new look at John Rawls, nearly 50 years later
It’s been nearly 50 years since the political philosopher John Rawls published his groundbreaking “Theory of Justice,” articulating the connection between justice and equal rights. That 1971 book, the first of three major pieces by the onetime James Bryant Conant Professor who died in 2002, still stands as a defining work of modern political philosophy. This Thursday through Saturday, it and the links it identified will be the focus of “Inequality, Religion, and Society,” a conference at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics. With panel discussions tackling issues such as social inequality, economic justice, and religion and democratic society, the conference is particularly appropriate for today’s tumultuous politics, said its chair, Michael Rosen, the Senator Joseph S. Clark Professor of Ethics in Politics and Government. With keynote talks by Christine Korsgaard, the Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Philosophy, and Thomas Michael “Tim” Scanlon, the Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy,...