Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

Fifty years ago John Rawls published A Theory of Justice in which he asks, what sort of society would we all create if we had to agree on a social contract without knowing where in society we would end up; we could be very rich, or we could be among the most poor. The result was a definition of justice as fairness, which would allow each person to continue in, or improve, their position. This Guardian article is a retrospective and reassessment of the theory in 2021. There's no shortage of criticisms of the theory, most notably, the suggestion that Rawls assumes the sort of social justice he is trying to deduce. (Note: the Guardian has a spamwall asking you to register before reading the article; I did not register, I use a Firefox extension called Tranquility Reader that gives me a clutter-free reading experience; it doesn't always work on spamwalls, but it often works).

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

Copyright 2024
Last Updated: Mar 28, 2024 10:53 a.m.

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