In Our Time podcast gets some extra time now, with a few minutes of bonus material from Melvin and his guests. So can I start by asking you, how does he say we assess moral claims? Here we have another one of Rolz's main innovations really, and that's the idea of reflective equilibrium. It's a method for assessing who has a claim when it comes to thinking about the principles of a just society.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss A Theory of Justice by John Rawls (1921 - 2002) which has been called the most influential book in twentieth century political philosophy. It was first published in 1971. Rawls (pictured above) drew on his own experience in WW2 and saw the chance in its aftermath to build a new society, one founded on personal liberty and fair equality of opportunity. While in that just society there could be inequalities, Rawls’ radical idea was that those inequalities must be to the greatest advantage not to the richest but to the worst off.
With
Fabienne Peter
Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick
Martin O’Neill
Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of York
And
Jonathan Wolff
The Alfred Landecker Professor of Values and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford and Fellow of Wolfson College
Producer: Simon Tillotson