John Rawls

Latest Posts in John Rawls

The Social Contract: Who Needs It?

Peter Corning

March 21, 2018

Let’s begin with some political theory. Aristotle, in his great treatise, the Politics, concluded that there are, basically, only two different kinds of governments in terms of the outcomes for a society — those that serve the common good, or the public interest, and those that have been co-opted to serve the self-interests of the people who hold political power.

The Fair Society: It’s Time to Re-write the Social Contract

Peter Corning

December 08, 2017

Many Americans were outraged when the Wall Street banks paid out an estimated $18.4 billion in executive and staff bonuses in 2009, even while the economy was being cratered by the financial meltdown and the Great Recession.1 It seemed very unfair; the perpetrators were being rewarded while the victims were paying a terrible price.

The Fairness Instinct and the Social Contract

Peter Corning

December 06, 2017

One of the important findings of the emerging, multi-disciplinary science of human nature is that humans do, indeed, have an innate sense of fairness. We regularly display a concern for others’ interests as well as our own, and we even show a willingness to punish perceived acts of unfairness.