John Rawls (?-2002)

American Political Philosopher. His magnum opus, A TheoryOfJustice, is widely regarded as the most important work of political philosophy of the twentieth century. Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at HarvardUniversity.

We lost Mr. Rawls a short time ago.  He's best known perhaps for his concept of the VeilOfIgnorance.  Simply put, imagine a committee formed to make the world a better governed place.  They could tinker with what's already up and running . . . but what if they could re-imagine the whole world and "start from scratch" -- acting as if they are ignorant of the way things are being done now?  What ideas might they come up with if there were no die-hard ideas or complacency?  

''Sounds good. Let's do it. Let's start on the NewWorldDemocracy page.''

I'm sure I've oversimplified the above, but "the way things are done now" thinking just isn't going to improve the world.  --Prof Taylor
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CategoryPhilosophy