Non-AC Political Philosophy: Who Has Read John Rawls?
 

It was pointed out in the mod complaint thread that ACers start most of the political philosophy threads. Since the amendment to the forum constitution didn't explicitly exile political philosophy to the SMP forum, I'll post this here.

John Rawls is a significant political theorist for liberals. I haven't found it, but I think that somewhere recently was a post claiming that my fellow liberals aren't particularly well-grounded in political philosophy. For now, I am just curious about who has actually read anything by Rawls. If you want to use this thread to discuss his political philosophy or how you encountered him, then fine.

To answer my own question, I own at least one of his books, but I seem to keep falling asleep while trying to read it. I have read articles and I believe a college professor I once took a class from said that you were better off reading someone else's summary of Rawls than reading his actual text.

But, yeah, I'm mostly interested for now in finding out how well you known Rawls rather than what you think of him.

Re: Non-AC Political Philosophy: Who Has Read John Rawls?
 

I read Theory of Justice as an undergrad. I didn't find it that boring.

Re: Non-AC Political Philosophy: Who Has Read John Rawls?
 

I'm not sure what you mean by "liberal" (since about 200 different definitions of it are used in this forum) but I have read some of his stuff. The VOI is a great thought experiment, but any conclusion that it is a good policy-formulation tool is fatally flawed.

Re: Non-AC Political Philosophy: Who Has Read John Rawls?
 

Moorobot has made quite a few posts about him, and from what I know I think I'd have to agree with that college professor (I actually think that rule holds true for most philosophers [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img])I don't think I'd be able to handle an entire book of his.

Re: Non-AC Political Philosophy: Who Has Read John Rawls?
 

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Moorobot has made quite a few posts about him, and from what I know I think I'd have to agree with that college professor (I actually think that rule holds true for most philosophers [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img])I don't think I'd be able to handle an entire book of his.

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I think Marx is the undisputed king of political philosophers who are discussed but whose works are rarely read in their entirety. I mean, who in the hell has really read Das Kapital? Rawls is probably a close second, though, especially since the veil of ignorance is pretty simple to explain.

Re: Non-AC Political Philosophy: Who Has Read John Rawls?
 

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I'm not sure what you mean by "liberal" (since about 200 different definitions of it are used in this forum) but I have read some of his stuff.

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I mean a modern political liberal as the term is used in the United States.