ONLINE: “John Rawls: Justice as Fairness” (Part 1)

This is the Saturday afternoon meeting for Socrates Cafe. It's online. We meet every couple Saturdays.

John Rawls (1921-2002) was an American moral philosopher, who was influenced by John Locke (1600s) and Immanuel Kant (1700s). This will be a good discussion to follow our last meeting topic of Kant. In the book “A Theory of Justice” (1971), Rawls develops the idea of “the veil of ignorance”, which encourages people to think about justice in society, by positioning themselves outside of society and looking back in. Imagine if we were to create a new society, what conditions would result in true justice? Also, Rawls asks us to reformulate society without knowing who we might be in it: we would not know our race, gender, age, wealth, etc. We only know that we will have basic abilities and want to be a part of society. Rawls was awarded the National Humanities Medal (1999).

Our meeting starts with an introduction or a dialogue, and then proceeds to an open discussion. You don't need to read any materials in advance.

READING MATERIAL

This meeting has no prerequisites; reading in advance is optional.

1. Video on Rawls, https://youtu.be/5-JQ17X6VNg

2. Original Position, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/original-position

TIMEZONES

Meeting time (USA):
3:00PM Eastern
2:00PM Central
1:00PM Mountain
Noon Pacific

For our international friends:
Please use the free tool here https://www.worldtimebuddy.com/

ZOOM LINK

CLICK TO START MEETING - https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83266410503

If you don't have a computer with camera, you can also dial using a phone. Pick one of these numbers and add ID 832 6641 0503#
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US
+1 301 715 8592 US

Our group enjoys open-minded, respectful conversations on Philosophy and how it relates to science, culture, other belief systems, and even pop culture (books and movies). Sometimes "we agree to disagree", but the long-term goal is to improve our minds via group discussions.

This meeting is free and open to the public.