Daniel Little
Rawls believes that a just society must be a pluralistic society, and that means that it must be neutral across (reasonable) comprehensive conceptions of the good. Citizens must be enabled to pursue their own comprehensive conceptions without interference from the state. Does this imply that a comprehensive conception based on the idea of ethnic or …
Continue reading "Confronting race through Rawls’s political philosophy"
In his speech to the top officers of the United States military Donald Trump has crossed the line from reckless right-wing authoritarian politician to aspiring fascist dictator. Here is a report from the Washington Post on the unprecedented event; scroll down to Amy Wang's coverage of his speech. Here are some crucial excerpts from her …
MLK, Rousseau, Rawls (Gemini) A prior post asked whether liberal political philosophy can be "anti-racist". Charles Mills addresses a related question in much more radical terms. He offers a fundamental critique of European/American liberal philosophy grounded in his view that the "social contract" tradition rests upon a comprehensive "racial contract" that embodies racial hierarchy and …
Continue reading "Racial assumptions in western political philosophy"
Can we understand the dynamics of far-right extremism without understanding far-right extremists? Probably not; it seems clear we need to have a much more "micro" understanding of the actors than we currently have if we are to understand these movements so antithetical to the values of liberal democracy. And yet there isn't much of a …
John Rawls and Philip Pettit agree about the idea that a liberal democracy depends on the idea that all citizens have equal liberties, rights, worth, and dignity. Therefore they also agree that social and legal arrangements that are incompatible with equal rights, equal liberties, and equal dignity are illegitimate. They disagree in some details about …
Continue reading "Can liberal political philosophy support anti-racism?"
We might say that a political philosophy is a formulation of the normative ideals that the philosopher holds to be primary in implementing the moral and social facts of "assemblages of free individuals in society, with conflicts of interest and belief". How should such a society be organized? What values should it aspire to realize …
Continue reading "A political philosophy for an inclusive multicultural democracy"
Many thoughtful people in the US are concerned about the effects that the 2025 federal budget reconciliation law will have on poor people in many states who are currently enrolled in Medicaid health coverage. KFF has put together a comprehensive analysis of the implications of this omnibus act for Medicaid patients here. I asked Gemini for a summary …
Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877. Artist Gustave Caillebotte. A current exhibition of the paintings of Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894) at the Art Institute in Chicago is quite remarkable. It demonstrates the eye, the hand, and the sensibility of this great late-Impressionist painter. But the exhibition is remarkable in another way as well: there is almost no …
Chicago is a highly diverse city, and it is a good example of life in a multicultural democracy. The image above is a photo of the crowd on Navy Pier on a recent Saturday summer evening. According to local estimates, as many as 120,000 people visit Navy Pier on a Saturday night, and it is …
MICE, Muon Ionisation Cooling Experiment, team at the facility during construction at STFC's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, 11th February 2015. The experiment is designed to demonstrate the concept of ionisation cooling of muons to maximise the number of muons available for acceleration, storage and the eventual production of neutirnos in a Neutrino Factory. Science proceeds through …
Understanding Society 