01:790:373 Lecture Notes - Lecture 25: Political Liberalism, Gore Vidal, Smart People
Document Summary
John rawls: theory of justice & political liberalism. Original position: you understand basic things about how society functions, political science, economics, sociology, you have a conception of what a society is but not who you are going to be. If people don"t know about themselves, they can"t manipulate anything in their favor. Is this fair: you don"t know what school district you will end im the worst or the best. Dictator or victim: what attributes does it take to become a dictator, mussolini very charismatic leader, gave passionate speeches, terrible human but he had skills to make for an effective dictator. If a superman was born, we wouldn"t be equal. Significant political and economic inequalities are often associated with inequalities of social status that encourage those of lower status to be viewed both by themselves and by others as inferior. The principles are accepted by rational persons in a position of equality: example: we are in a position of equality.