‘Free and the same’, by Daniel Chandler: is it worth defending liberalism?

He studied at Princeton and specialized in philosophy-ostics and theology. He was about to become an episcopalist priest. After graduating in 1943 He enrolled in the army serving in the Pacific. He was one of the first who was in Hiroshima after the bomb. It was awarded.

The disasters of war made him reflect, «if God cannot be the basis of our faith in the possibility of a fair society, what could that base be? What exactly what justice requires us? Is it realistic to think that we can reach a fair society? The answer to all these interrogations gave them in his book ‘Theory of Justice’ (1971) that had a great impact.

Harvard’s teacher was fifty. It became one of the great philosophers of politics. Another very important book was ‘political liberalism’ (1993). Despite the importance of his work, Rawls was never a popular character outside the academic world. Rejected conferences, interviews, decorations (Except the National Humanities, which President Clinton imposed in 1999, for helping to defend democracy among new generations) and was not in current debates.

Rawls wanted to combine the classic liberal tradition, which values ​​individual freedoms above all others, with the socialist tradition willing to sacrifice them in the name of equality. Rawls was very criticized, but respected. Samuel Freeman, his alumnus, said There were very few intellectuals like him. ‘The New York Times’ described ‘theory of justice’ as the best book of the year. And the philosopher Ga Cohen placed him next to the ‘Republic’ of Plato and the ‘Leviathan’ of Hobbes. Michael Sandel remembers his teacher’s call when he joined Harvard University as Professor Raso.

Daniel Chandler who in this book, ‘free and equal’, shows us that he knows more than Rawls than Rawls himself, cites this comment from Robert Nozick that is highly significant: «Now, Lpolitical philosophers work with John’s theory or they have to explain why they don’t. What Nozick has not always been very complicating with it.

Chandler crumbles Rawls’s work and, most importantly, he does it from the new problems of our day. Not only does it affirm the actuality of it, but also suggests that we use it to fix discrepancies. It is not an exegeta but an impartial interpreter. Chandler is very based on the American politics of recent years and is inclined to a ‘Democratic’ ” ‘rawls more than’ Republican ‘. Obviously Trump would horrify him. Chandler also stops in populisms. But in those of rights.

Those on the left practically do not appear. What is justice? What is the nature of democratic legitimacy? How can we balance the demands of freedom and equality? How to organize society? They are some of the preferential issues of this essay. Always having as script the liberal thought of Rawls. Above all, in that thought of Rawls, the idea that society must be fair. And must be based on two fundamental principles: freedom and equality.

Political and personal freedom. The latter through consciousness, expression, association, equitable suffrage and the legality of the political process. Equality was for him a fair framework to think about our social and economic structures. Opportunities to succeed independently of its class, race or gender. Why is it worth defending liberalism today? Rawls wonders through Chandler. Liberalism is not a single set of ideas or policies, but a broad intellectual and political tradition in constant evolution.

A reality that often their critics do not know how to recognize. There is a serious confusion between liberalism and neoliberalism. Rawls was very critical of capitalism, he was in favor of a more human, equitable and sustainable society. I was also against selfishness. Cooperation and reciprocity are pillars of American theory. An equal liberalism. Reinvent liberalism as an intellectual tradition in permanent evolution.

False choice

Rawls invited us to reform and readjet our most basic political and economic institutions: the democratic process as well as the role of government and markets. That is why his thinking floats between the right and the left. There is a Fruitial dialogue between egalitarian liberals and democratic socialists. These two traditions have much in common. However, socialism has never liked this liberal center progressivism, and has been very hostile with private property, with markets and non -state companies. The most unredeeled identity policy It tends to defend the interests of specific groups and sometimes very minority such as LGTB, women, black or disappeared abandoning the growing proletariat and forgetting the inclusive idea of ​​the common good.

But the right, also the most unredeemed, manages complex issues such as immigration, racism, the attack on democracy and equality. Rawls always defended the dignity, justice and the rights of minorities within a constitutional order. Rawls told us how we can overcome the false choice between the protection of specific groups and develop an economic agenda that benefits everyone.

Freedom of expression, environmentalism, the new social contract, cultural wars, civility and culture of cancellation, constitutionalism, shared values, anti -liberal nationalisms, immigration, political parties, political parties, The mediainequality, free market, universal basic income, taxes, private property, and democracy itself, are some of the other issues that Chandler speaks with the mirror.