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john rawls: reticent socialist This book is the first detailed reconstruction of the late work of John Rawls, who wasperhaps the most influential philosopher of the twentieth century. Rawls’s 1971 treatise,A Theory of Justice,stimulated an outpouring of commentary on “justice-as- fairness,”hisconceptionofjusticeforanideal,self-contained,modernpoliticalsociety. MostofthatcommentarytookRawlstobedefendingwelfare-statecapitalismasfoundin WesternEuropeandtheUnitedStates.FarlessattentionhasbeengiventoRawls’s2001 book,JusticeasFairness:ARestatement.IntheRestatement,Rawlsnotonlysubstantially reformulatesthe“originalposition”argumentforthetwoprinciplesofjustice-as-fairness, he also repudiates capitalist regimes as possible embodiments. Edmundson further developsRawls’snon-idealtheory,whichguidesuswhenwefindourselvesinasociety thatfallswellshortofjustice. william a. edmundson isRegentsProfessorofLawandPhilosophyatGeorgiaState UniversityCollegeofLaw.HeistheauthorofThreeAnarchicalFallacies(1998)andAn Introduction to Rights (2012) and editor of The Duty to Obey the Law (1999) and The BlackwellGuidetothePhilosophyofLawandLegalTheory(2004).Heisalsotheseries editoroftheCambridgeIntroductionstoPhilosophyandLaw. John Rawls: Reticent Socialist WILLIAM A. EDMUNDSON GeorgiaState University UniversityPrintingHouse,Cambridgecb28bs,UnitedKingdom OneLibertyPlaza,20thFloor,NewYork,ny10006,USA 477WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,vic3207,Australia 4843/24,2ndFloor,AnsariRoad,Daryaganj,Delhi–110002,India 79AnsonRoad,#06–04/06,Singapore079906 CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107173194 doi:10.1017/9781316779934 ©WilliamA.Edmundson2017 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2017 PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabySheridanBooks,Inc. AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData names:Edmundson,WilliamA.(WilliamAtkins),1948–author. title:JohnRawls:reticentsocialist/WilliamA.Edmundson. description:1Edition.|NewYork :CambridgeUniversityPress,2017.| Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. identifiers:lccn2017014849|isbn9781107173194(Hardback) subjects:lcsh:Rawls,John,1921-2002–Politicalandsocialviews.|Justice.|Liberalism.| Politicalstability.|bisac:LAW/Jurisprudence. classification:lccjc578.e3462017|ddc320.01/1–dc23LCrecord availableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2017014849 isbn978-1-107-17319-4Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracy ofURLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. ‘ The long dominance of the idea that philosophy is one thing and ’ history of philosophy is another is now visibly coming to an end. Or is this too optimistic an estimate? —HilaryPutnam(1997,201) Contents Acknowledgments page ix Introduction 1 1 Conceptions of Property in the OriginalPosition 17 2 Property-Owning Democracy versus Liberal Socialism 28 3 Fair Value and the Factof Domination 52 4 TheFour-Stage Sequence 65 5 TheCircumstances of Politics 81 6 Rescuing the Difference Principle 90 7 TheSpecialPsychologies 105 8 Socialismand Stability 118 9 TheCommonContent of the Two Regimes 128 10 TheProperty Question 139 11 Religion and Reticence 170 12 Non-Ideal Theory: The Transition toSocialism 186 Bibliography 201 Index 207 vii Acknowledgments Forfavorsgreatandsmall,IthankAndyAltman,DavidBrudney,AndrewI.Cohen, Andrew J. Cohen, Josh Cohen, Richard Dagger, Norman Daniels, Sam Freeman, AlanGilbert,ChristieHartley,BenJackson,MattJeffers,ErinKelly,SharonLloyd, Michael McPherson, Frank Michelman, Susan Neiman, George Rainbolt, David Reidy, Ben Rogers, Cheyney Ryan, Amelie Rorty, Eric Schliesser, Alan Thomas, KevinVallier,BasvanderVossen,MichaelWalzer,andLeifWenar.PamBrannon hashelpedme assemble the secondary materials I had toconsult. For taking on the unhappy task of plowing through the nearly finished manu- script,mydeepestgratitudeisowedtoJeremy Farris,PeterLindsay, FrankMichel- man, Kevin Vallier, and an anonymous reviewer for Cambridge University Press. I have tried my best to take their counsel, but of course their patience does not necessarilyconveyanendorsement.IdoowespecialthankstoJeremyFarrisforthe initialsuggestionthatIwritethisbook,andtoJohnBerger,myeditor,formovingit forward. ix