In direct contravention of my wife's explicit instructions, herewith I inaugurate my first blog. Long may it prosper.

For some reason, I think I have something to say to you. You think you have something to say to me? Email me at: gideonsblogger -at- yahoo -dot- com

 
Jacob Levy has a touching obit for John Rawls, and links to many others. I was never much of a fan, I admit. I always classed Rawls with Ronald Dworkin as liberal intellectuals who believed that a sufficiently impressive theoretical edifice could convince everyone to be a conventional liberal like themselves. I also think the veil of ignorance is a deeply wrong idea; we do not, any one of us, start at on original position; we all start where we are. That said, I probably didn't appreciate him enough because I grew up in his world. (Lincoln-Douglas-style high school debaters in my day only had to know two thinkers to have a debate: Rawls and Nozick. And they didn't need to know them deeply, either, just have a few pithy quotes at the ready.) And I grant him this: at least he was wrong. So many others who labor in the same fields are not even wrong, a far more damning indictment.
posted by Noah at 1:13 PM