John Rawls - Existential Comics

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

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