Chapter 4, 1946-1950, Rawls: A Democratic Vision

Abstract

This is a draft of the fourth chapter, covering 1946-1950, of an intellectual biography of John Rawls that is in progress. This is the period of Rawls's graduate study. The chapter focuses on Rawls's efforts to show logical positivists that a properly scientific and positivist approach to ethics did not terminate in non-cognitivism and was instead compatible with a empirical ethical rationalism. Earlier chapters already drafted cover Rawls's family background and childhood, his undergraduate study and writings, and his war time service. The next two chapters to follow this draft cover his post-doc years, 1950-53, during which time he settled on the project now known as "justice as fairness," and his time as an assistant professor at Cornell, 1953-58, during which he settled on the elements and outline of that project. The book's subsequent chapters will cover the rest of Rawls's life and the key aspects of his intellectual development over its full course.

Keywords: Rawls, justice, democratic theory, liberalism, history of political thought, law