Philosophy and Methodology

Rawls’s doubts about global justice make him an effective critic of his own theory of justice.

Rawls’s doubts about global justice make him an effective critic of his own theory of justice.

If democracy is so fundamental, shouldn’t we all have a vote in every place we set foot, from Sunbury, Alaska, to Monaco?

We can easily imagine a world in which leisure does not represent the opportunity cost of labor, and that Mises and Rothbard have been misconstrued. 

If democracy is so fundamental, shouldn’t we all have a vote in every place we set foot, from Sunbury, Alaska, to Monaco?

Rawls claims equality is the default position and any departure from it requires justification. This is a trick that slants the debate in Rawls's favor. Anthony Flew didn't fall for it. 

Contrary to popular assertions, the Nazis weren't only trying to expropriate Jewish wealth. They wanted the German people to come together as a collective entity, and this entailed socialism.

In ancient Athens, “the individual was much more subservient to the supremacy of the social body...than he is in any of the free states of Europe today.”

To adopt a Rawlsian account of justice, you have to accept democratic participation in a strong sense. For Rawls, the people in a society must decide political questions together.

"With regard to the doctrine that God is wholly other than man and that his essence and nature cannot be grasped by mortal man, the natural sciences and a philosophy derived from them have nothing to say."