Listen "Rawls' Theory of Justice"
Episode Synopsis
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. WithFabienne Peter
Professor of Philosophy at the University of WarwickMartin O’Neill
Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of YorkAnd Jonathan Wolff
The Alfred Landecker Professor of Values and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford and Fellow of Wolfson CollegeProducer: Simon Tillotson
Professor of Philosophy at the University of WarwickMartin O’Neill
Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of YorkAnd Jonathan Wolff
The Alfred Landecker Professor of Values and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford and Fellow of Wolfson CollegeProducer: Simon Tillotson
More episodes of the podcast In Our Time: Philosophy
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
24/04/2025
Socrates in Prison
20/02/2025
Hayek's The Road to Serfdom
14/11/2024
Philippa Foot
13/06/2024
Panpsychism
22/02/2024
Condorcet
08/02/2024
The Theory of the Leisure Class
14/12/2023
Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics
30/11/2023
Elizabeth Anscombe
20/07/2023
Solon the Lawgiver
20/04/2023