Free and Equal: What Would a Fair Society Look Like?

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There are radical and destabilising ideas out there in philosophy that would change everything if we took them seriously: deliberative democracy, cosmopolitanism and longtermism, to name three. By explaining the philosophy of Rawls with a new and perfect balance of accessibility and depth, this is a fantastic contribution to public discourse. Yet Chandler repeatedly adjudicates on questions that are fundamentally empirical rather than matters of conflicting values. Unfortunately, for anyone who is not a philosophy student or graduate, reading Rawls' dense work directly would probably be a waste of time. Instead this is the author writing at great length and detail what he would do if he was appointed planet dictator.

Daniel Chandler is an unqualified admirer of John Rawls, whom he acclaims as ‘the twentieth century’s greatest political philosopher’ (p3, 52), a claim advanced without evidence or proof, whilst contrarily admitting that Rawls made little public impact (p7), and ‘said relatively little about race’ (p185), despite this being a major issue in US society. Chandler summarizes the issues around them effectively and efficiently, he covers so many so quickly that he cannot expect his arguments for them to be definitive. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions.makes the case for a new progressive liberalism grounded in the ideas of the philosopher John Rawls, and will be published by Penguin/Allen Lane in Spring 2023.

A timely and thought-provoking look into society, Chandler's insights are much needed in today's world. Free and Equal suggests that Rawls has a distinctive moral vision that can help shift our political priorities.While it may have benefited from a more global perspective, the book remains an insightful resource for anyone interested in understanding and promoting a more “equal” society. Nevertheless the ideas are good and in the second part of the book we find how they can be used within our present democratic societies. Some parts of it are relatively straightforward, while the philosophical part can be hard to see within the broad framework. Automation is reducing aggregate labour income, and conditionality wreaks havoc in poverty and unemployment traps, humiliation and intrusion. His views on what might be done to remedy the more grotesque inequalities are modest enough, though they will appal libertarians and most Conservative voters.

It is perfectly pitched for a non-specialist audience, and I would happily assign the book as reading if I were teaching Rawls to undergraduates. As World War II was still being fought, the animosity and prejudices against Japanese Americans was at a record high, especially on the West Coast. The writing of utopias has fallen out of fashion, whether because we are jaded, pessimistic about the chances of realising even a fraction of proposals that might be considered utopian, or for some other reason. Rawls himself did turn to questions of international justice in The Law of Peoples with The Idea of Public Reason Revisited and one of his students, Thomas Pogge, has done the same in World Poverty and Human Rights: Cosmopolitan Responsibilities and Reforms. Because of its strong foundations in philosophy, I think that Free and Equal compares favourably to the democratic socialist framework of Erik Olin Wright in Envisioning Real Utopias and How to Be an Anticapitalist in the Twenty-First Century, as well as Thomas Piketty's A Brief History of Equality.Free and Equal has the potential not only to transform contemporary debate, but to offer a touchstone for a modern, egalitarian liberalism for many years to come, cementing Rawls’s place in political discourse, and firmly establishing Chandler as a vital new voice for our time. slender paperback, profusely illustrated with Adams' black and white photography, 8x11 inches; lower 1. Chandler highlights ideas which could be misunderstood in Rawls, like his recognition that economic inequalities are about power and status as well as wealth and income.