Consenting Adults Reading By Robert Pollock

Moral Equivalency? American academia and media were rife with the notion that the United States and the Soviet Union were morally equivalent.

Robert Nozick Nozick founded Columbia University’s chapter of the leftist Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) Graduate study at Princeton Read Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek

Friedman & Hayek Harvard Philosopher Nozick grew convinced that capitalism had moral as well as productive virtues. Wrote “Anarchy, State and Utopia” in 1974

John Rawls Harvard Philosopher Wrote “A Theory of Justice” in 1971

Utilitarianism The dominant moral and political theories of the time were utilitarian. Justice meant maximizing human pleasure and minimizing pain. Individuals might sometimes be sacrificed for the greater good. Rawls found this unacceptable!

Rawlsian View He wanted a theory of justice based on individual rights.

“Veil of Ignorance” He asked readers to perform a thought experiment under a veil of ignorance. Imagine that you don’t know if you’re an man or a woman, rich or poor, smart or dumb. What kind of society would you like to born into? Rawls assumed that everyone would want to play it safe and not risk being at the bottom.

“Veil of Ignorance” cont. Rawls assumed that everyone would want to play it safe and not risk being at the bottom. All basic goods should “be distributed equally unless an unequal distribution…is to the advantage of the least favored.”

Rawlsian Model Welcomed by liberals as a justification of an expansive welfare state.

Nozick Argument Rawls seemed more concerned with material equality than with individual rights. Achievement of such equality through taxation and income redistribution required extensive coercion… The treatment of individuals and their work as a means to others’ ends (a just society).

Nozick What Nozick argued was that Mr. Rawls seemed more concerned with material equality than with individual rights. The achievement of such equality through taxation and income redistribution required extensive coercion

Nozick The treatment of individuals and their work as means to others' ends (a "just" society), a violation of rights