Audard, Catherine. John Rawls. 2007. Routledge, 2014.
For thirty years, beginning with his seminal A Theory of Justice in 1971, John Rawls developed a nuanced theory that defined and redefined the philosophical underpinnings of political liberalism. He said we should define the social contract as if we knew nothing about the people to whom it would apply and that any inequalities produced by the social contract should be arranged so that they most benefit the least advantaged citizens. Catherine Audard defends these key ideas, but she also admits that some of Rawls’ arguments were either weak or undeveloped—notably those in which he responded to recent feminist philosophy and to philosophies based on cultural identity. Audard also notes unresolved definitional problems in his attempts to apply his theory of justice to non-democratic societies. What Audard does best is to show how Rawls advocated a social contract that applied some reworked Kantian principles of individual autonomy and how his views highlighted weaknesses in utilitarian arguments that can ignore individuals in pursuit of the common good. Audard’s book is especially valuable for detailing how Rawls modified some of the arguments in the first edition of A Theory of Justice to reflect his own rethinking and how he responded to his critics. That willingness to admit that his critics may be right sometimes is one of the most refreshing things about Rawls, and I am grateful to Audard for explaining that dialogue so clearly. Audard’s book did sometimes lose me in the weeds of detailed philosophical debate, but it also taught me many useful things about the thinking of one of the most important twentieth-century philosophers. 4 stars. ( )