Revista (PDF) - Universidade do Minho

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DIACRÍTICA
politically, socially and economically from the long-term social effects
of slavery. The Civil rights movement and the conflicts surrounding
the Vietnam War challenged the legitimacy of the social order and of
political leaders while he was writing his book.
Rawls had a remarkable way of engaging with other philosophers.
He always insisted that in order to learn from others we must interpret
them charitably before raising objections and seeking improvements
in their views – preferably such that the authors themselves would have
accepted. He assumed that they often sought answers to very different
questions than those that concern us, agreeing with the historian
Collingwood that the history of political philosophy is not a series of
answers to the same, ‘eternal’ questions, but a series of answers to a
series of different questions. His lectures, some recently available and
more to come, show how he explicitly borrowed both insights and
arguments from a wide range of European thinkers. He often recalled
the old saying ascribed to Newton, that if we see further than previous
generations it is because we stand on the shoulders of giants. Rawls’
strategy of seeking kind and constructive yet critical reading of
others also benefitted his colleagues and students: He would always be
seeking charitable interpretations of our questions and answers,
regardless of whether they matched his own point of view.
Rawls’ theory is a thorough and systematic answer to one fundamental
and important political question: what distribution of benefits
and burdens the social institutions should facilitate, among individuals
deeply divided by conceptions of the good life yet united in
regarding society as a project among equals.
Today, societies still need such philosophical contribution to the
public debate. The population needs a shared justification for criteria
for a just society. The future of pensions and other welfare arrangements,
the use of market mechanisms in the public sector, shifting
conceptions of sovereignty and democracy wrought by the European
Union, and the grounds and limits of tolerance are examples of topics
that must be handled in ways that respect the equal dignity of all.
Regardless of how we assess Rawls’ principles of distributive
justice, it is sometimes fruitful to argue as if we are behind a veil of
ignorance. Reflective equilibrium and overlapping consensus suggest
how values and normative judgments can be justified even in a society
with a plurality of religious and philosophical views.
John Rawls spent his life exploring and defending the view that we
must always treat everybody in society as equals. He argued for that
claim, and lived by that creed.