John Rawls - Existential Comics

A philosophy webcomic about the inevitable anguish of living a brief life in an absurd world. Also Jokes

Time Traveling Intellectuals

"But wait, you haven't listened to my argument yet about how the pit of despair decreases overall happiness!"

Permanent Link to this Comic: https://existentialcomics.com/comic/585

John Rawls and the Original Position

John Rawls: "Hey Wolff."
Robert Paul Wolff: "Hey Rawls."
Rawls: "I came up with a great thought experiment to find the perfect way to figure out the basis of society, i call it the â€œoriginal position.â€ "

Rawls: "The idea is to come up with the rules of society behind a â€œveil of ignoranceâ€, that is, without knowing any facts about yourself, not even whether we will be smart or stupid, black or white, or what religion or ideas we will have."
Wolff: "Interesting."

Rawls: "That way we can design a society from no one's point of view. A society that a is just and fair for all."
Wolff: "Alright, let's give it a try."

Both together, rubbing their temples: "thinking, thinking, thinking..."

Rawls: "It turns out society should be pretty much the same! Except we should tax rich people like 6% more."
Wolff: "Wait...what? That's it?"

Rawls: "Yeah, rich people will still more or less run things, but we'll tax them, so it will still help the least favored overall. Why, what did you come up with?"

Wolff: "I thought we should have a classless society without hierarchies where everyone works together in freedom and cooperation."
Rawls: "No, that's wrong."

Rawls: "People aren't willing to bear the risk of disruption to change things that much."
Wolff: "I mean, sure...tenured professors aren't, maybe."
Rawls: "Nah, I'm pretty sure my intuitions are universal."

Would people from other cultures imagine a society more similar to their system? Yes, but I come from the correct system, so I'm the one who is correct.

Permanent Link to this Comic: https://existentialcomics.com/comic/350

Philosophy News Network: Strike

"Oh and I almost forgot, one more demand: we need eight billions dollars to construct an imaginary Large Hadron Collider to help us with our thought experiments."

Permanent Link to this Comic: https://existentialcomics.com/comic/199

In which John Rawls is a bad tipper.

Rawls: "But seriously Nozick, imagine that you were an ugly waiter who got less tips just for how you look." Nozick: "Okay...imagining, imagining...nope. Sorry, no matter how hard I try, I just can't imagine what it is like to not be incredibly handsome."

Permanent Link to this Comic: https://existentialcomics.com/comic/119