John Rawls' A Theory of Justice - Jonathan Wolff (2010)

John Rawls' A Theory of Justice is one of the most important works of political philosophy of the 20th century. In this program, Nigel Warburton interviews Jonathan Wolff about John Rawls' main ideas and their limitations. John Rawls' argument takes the form of a thought experiment involving a hypothetical contract in which people are made ignorant about certain facts about themselves which could bias them in their own favor (e.g. their race, gender, class, age, talents, etc.). In this way, ignorance is used as a way to guarantee impartiality in deciding how societies should be set up. After all, one cannot rig things to benefit oneself if one doesn't know what one's interests are or what one's position in society will be. Rawls argued that people behind this so-called "veil of ignorance" would agree to two principles of justice: the liberty principle and the difference principle. Jonathan Wolf explains these principles and the main arguments for and against them.

This is from an episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast back in 2010. For more information and episodes, go to www.philosophybites.com

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