ABSTRACT
John Rawls is the political philosopher of the twentieth century. The publication in 1971, of his A Theory of Justice reinvigorated an almost moribund branch of philosophy. This, and his subsequent defence of his position (1993), have largely provided the matter of philosophical political discussion until the present day. Whilst many are not convinced by his arguments (see Nozick 1974, Sandel 1982, MacIntyre 1988) there is no doubt that any reasonable contemporary political philosopher must take account of them. In his work Rawls offers an account, and a sustained defence, of
liberal democracy, with its enshrined values of political liberty and equality and its sense that it is serving a variety of interest groups, each with their own notion of what constitutes a good life. And a continuing theme of his work is a minimalist idea of political liberalism which stresses the impartiality of the liberal state towards these different notions, and a concern that the values within liberalism – value associated with autonomy and individuality – do not become just ‘another sectarian doctrine’ [Rawls 1985, p. 246]. To this end he rejects a fully blown liberalism which promotes such values and defends a much weaker version, which requires of education not an espousal of such values but:
Far less. It will ask that the children’s education include such things as their constitutional and civic rights so that, for example, they know that liberty of conscience exists in their society and that apostasy is not a legal crime, all this to ensure that their continued membership [of their own interest group] is not based simply on ignorance of their basic rights or fear of punishments that do not exist.
