Source: Liberal Currents
by Matthew McManus
“Rawls the Good oftentimes seems like a nice way of saying Rawls the boring. For a figure said to have reinvigorated English speaking political philosophy (the word was once political philosophy wholesale) it can be hard to figure out why upon first reading Theory of Justice. Rawls'[s] style is technical, hyper-academic, and dull. At 600 pages even dedicated Rawlsians often admit to tedium going through his opus. … So goes the conventional wisdom around Rawls critiques. The accumulated effect is to induce starry-eyed wonder that his work could ever provoke so much attention. And yet like so much conventional wisdom relayed to undergraduates, much of it is wrong.” (07/10/25)