1. Introduction to Politics and International Studies Reach Summer School
Tobias Müller, Department of Politics and International Studies

2. Who is the most important philosopher of the 20th century?

3. John Rawls: Justice as Fairness
Moral philosopher at Harvard and Oxford
National Humanities Medal by President Clinton because his work “helped a whole generation of learned Americans revive their faith in democracy itself”
“Rawlsianism” as dominant paradigm in the US

4. John Rawls: Justice as Fairness
Main question of distributive Justice: How should income, wealth, power and opportunity be distributed? According to which principles?

5. John Rawls: Justice as Fairness
“Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust.”

6. John Rawls: Justice as Fairness
Rational, self-interested people with roughly similar needs choose the same principles to order society (Neo-Kantian)
The basis of a society is a set of tacit agreements (social contract, see Hobbes)
The agreed-upon principles must not be dependent on one’s place in society

7. John Rawls: Justice as Fairness
Veil of ignorance as thought experiment:
Nobody knows where in society he or she stands:
Economic class
Religious group
Ethnic minority or majority
Sexual orientation
Smart or less smart

8. John Rawls: Justice as Fairness
Role Play: Veil of Ignorance