Not Yet A Buddha

Galston On Rawls (Wonkish)

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by hilzoy

As I wrote last night, I have been reading John Rawls' undergraduate thesis. Having almost finished it, I wanted to say a few words about William Galston's article on it, because I think it's wrong in several respects. 

Rawls' thesis was written during a period in which he was intensely religious, and it shows. His first basic presupposition is that "there is a being whom Christians call God and who has revealed Himself in Christ Jesus". (Having been an undergraduate in the same department at the same institution forty years later, I tried to imagine turning in a thesis with this basic presupposition. My head exploded.) Galston notes this, and writes:

"If it turns out that early faith commitments constitute the unexpressed but indispensable basis of Rawls's thought, then one may wonder whether there are other grounds on which those of different faiths, or no faith at all, can affirm the validity of his conception of justice as fairness."

This is true. But it's not clear, to me at least, why one might think that Rawls' early Christianity, which he had abandoned long before he published A Theory Of Justice, would turn out not just to illuminate that work (which it does), but to be indispensable to it — to call into question the extent to which non-Christians could accept it. For that to be the case, the arguments in TJ would have not just to be informed by Rawls' experience of religion, but to require religious presuppositions. And it's not clear why one would think that that is true.

Galston's main example is this:

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Kids In The Back Seat

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by hilzoy The Washington Post has a story about people who accidentally leave their kids in the car, where they die from the heat. I often say that things are worth reading, but this one is more than usually so: for the detail, the understanding, the neurological explanation for how this could happen even to … Read more

Race Since The 80s

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by hilzoy


Matt Cooper has a really interesting post at TPMDC, on the difficulty of explaining to people who weren't around (or old enough) at the time just how different, and more troubled, race relations were like in the 80s and early 90s. He asks: "Why is America's racial atmosphere less poisonous than it was then?" And he offers a few answers: the drop in black crime and teen pregnancy, the disappearance of issues like school busing,the mainstreaming of hip-hop, Bill Clinton's ease with African-Americans and Bush's cabinet picks. Josh Marshall adds: "American mass culture found a more useful scary other: Arabs and Muslims. That's a key thing that isn't pretty but I think is also true." 

Since I seem to be around the same age as Cooper, I thought I'd offer a few more possibilities, which I've put below the fold.

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No, Blacks Did Not Destroy Gay Marriage

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by hilzoy Finally, we have a good analysis (pdf) of the levels of African-American support for Proposition 8. Guess what? It probably wasn’t nearly as high as the exit polls suggested: “Surveys conducted just before and just after Election Day found much smaller differences in support for Proposition 8 between African Americans and voters as … Read more

Annals Of Self-Deception

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by hilzoy From the NYT: “In an interview conducted earlier this month by his sister, Doro Bush Koch, Mr. Bush said he wanted to be remembered “as a person who, first and foremost, did not sell his soul in order to accommodate the political process.”” “”I came to Washington with a set of values, and … Read more

Baffled

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by hilzoy Sometimes I think I will never understand today’s conservative movement. Case in point: “IN A WIDE-RANGING INTERVIEW aboard his campaign plane this morning, John McCain said that he is open to choosing a pro-choice running mate and named former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge as someone who merits serious consideration despite his support for … Read more

An Old, Old Story

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by hilzoy

Isaac Chotiner at The Plank found — well, read it for yourself:

“A cry for help goes out from a city beleaguered by violence and fear: A beam of light flashed into the night sky, the dark symbol of a bat projected onto the surface of the racing clouds . . .

Oh, wait a minute. That’s not a bat, actually. In fact, when you trace the outline with your finger, it looks kind of like . . . a “W.”

There seems to me no question that the Batman film “The Dark Knight,” currently breaking every box office record in history, is at some level a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by George W. Bush in this time of terror and war.”

Definitely. Because of all the parts of Dark Knight where the filmmakers had real scope for artistic choices, what the Bat Sign looks like is obviously at the top of the list.

But it gets worse: Andrew Klavan, who wrote this, moves from surreal stupidity to moral philosophy.

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What’s For Lunch?

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by hilzoy Ezra Klein points out this startling fact from the PB&J Campaign: “Each time you have a plant-based lunch like a PB&J you’ll reduce your carbon footprint by the equivalent of 2.5 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions over an average animal-based lunch like a hamburger, a tuna sandwich, grilled cheese, or chicken nuggets. For … Read more

Keeping Your Moral Bearings

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by hilzoy I just wanted to say something prompted by the comments to the last post. Publius can undoubtedly stick up for himself. But I note that all he asked was: is he missing something when he is disgusted at the thought that this guy is getting a hero’s welcome? He did not say any … Read more

Happy Fourth Of July

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by hilzoy Lincoln’s Lyceum Address, 1838: “We find ourselves in the peaceful possession, of the fairest portion of the earth, as regards extent of territory, fertility of soil, and salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under the government of a system of political institutions, conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty, … Read more