John Rawls
Lesekreis 

Please note that this video is available in German.

John Rawls (*1921 Baltimore, †2002) was an American philosopher and professor at Harvard University and is considered a central as well as much-discussed representative of 20th century political philosophy. In his major work, A Theory of Justice (1971), he developed a standpoint of social equality from which members of a society are supposed to agree on certain principles of justice. In his approach, socially disadvantaged groups, as well as questions of the distribution of material resources and education, play a decisive role. At the same time, he represents a liberal self-image in which the freedom of the individual within democracy is a high good. Despite his efforts to achieve social and political justice, Rawls’ theory has been increasingly appropriated by neoliberal discourses and used as legitimation for an accentuated economic liberalism.