John Rawls

The four dimensions in the 16-axis model where this thinker scores highest. People in this archetype tend to lean the same way.

• UIUniversalist Impulse

  10 / 10
• TRTrust in Reason

  9 / 10
• TDTheoretical Drive

  8 / 10
• TETrust in Experience

  7 / 10

The six thinkers whose 16-dimensional positions sit closest to this one. Useful as next-reading suggestions.

• HabermasFORGE

  Communicative rationality. The ideal speech situation. Public reason as the ground of legitimacy.

• Peter SingerFORGE

  All animals are equal. Effective altruism. Save lives where you can, with what you have.

• Anton Wilhelm AmoCARTOGRAPHER

  Mind and body are distinct. African capacity for philosophical reasoning is equal to any.

• Tommie ShelbyCARTOGRAPHER

  Dark Ghettos — political philosophy of structural injustice.

• ComteFORGE

  Three stages of human knowledge: theological, metaphysical, positive. Sociology is queen of sciences.

• Pierre-Simon LaplaceCARTOGRAPHER

  Celestial mechanics; the demon who, knowing all positions, sees all futures.

Concepts where John Rawls sits in the conversation. Each links to a primer.

• Justice
  What do we owe each other, and what makes a distribution fair?
• The social contract
  Why submit to political authority? Because a rational agent would have agreed to.

Side-by-side with other philosophers, dimension by dimension.

• John Rawls VS Peter Singer

Short exercises in the same tradition as John Rawls's thought. Each takes 5–25 minutes.

• Premortem →

  Imagine the failure of your plan in vivid detail before you start.

• Steelmanning the opposite →

  Write the strongest possible version of the view you most reject.

• Switch sides →

  Argue both sides of a debate, alternating, until you no longer know which side you started on.