John Rawls: Reticent Socialist

by William A. Edmundson

This book is the first detailed reconstruction of the late work of John Rawls, who was perhaps the most influential philosopher of the twentieth century. Rawls's 1971 treatise, A Theory of Justice, stimulated an outpouring of commentary on 'justice-as-fairness,' his conception of justice for an ideal, self-contained, modern political society. Most of that commentary took Rawls to be defending welfare-state capitalism as found in Western Europe and the United States. Far less attention has been given to Rawls's 2001 book, Justice as A Restatement. In the Restatement, Rawls not only substantially reformulates the 'original position' argument for the two principles of justice-as-fairness but also repudiates capitalist regimes as possible embodiments. Edmundson further develops Rawls's non-ideal theory, which guides us when we find ourselves in a society that falls well short of justice.

Genres: Philosophy, Politics

212 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 17, 2017

Reviews

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author starts from John Rawls' late claim that justice as fairness could not be realized by capitalism, but only by either democratic socialism or "property owning democray". Edumdson then constructs a convincing argument built from Rawlsian thought itself, that, of the two types of regime that could possibly realize justice, democratic socialism is superior.

Democratic socialism and property owning democracy differ with respect to the question of the ownership of the "commanding heights" of the means of production. Where democratic socialism requires public ownership, property owning democracy allows private ownership.

At each point of a detailed comparison, Edmundson makes the case that allowing for the possibility of private ownership of the means of production has a destabilizing effect on society that Rawls would abhor. Such destabilization would come in the form of unequal concentrations of political and economic power in the hands of a ruling class that could too easily and unjustly establish dominance.

The attempt to find a common core to democratic socialism and property owning democracy, and then compare them against differing concerns is Edmundson's way of establishing the Rawlsian pedigree of his argument. He repeats a kind of "original position "determination of which regime would best realize the principles of justice as fairness. Rawls work already establishes an argument for justice as fairness itself via a similar determination in his work. Edumdson tries to show that Rawls' late criticism of capitalism is an essential part of moving Rawls' project forward, and not just an inessential complaint.

[Lucas · Rating 2 out of 5]

One could get by just reading chapter 10 and ignoring the rest, which is largely milquetoast, unoriginal Rawlsian exegesis. Chapters 11 and 12 may be worth reading for reasons of biographical interest re: Rawls.