St. John of Harvard Yard

Illiberal Justice: John Rawls vs. the American Political Tradition, by David Lewis Schaefer (Missouri, 368 pp., $24.95)

HARVARD philosopher John Rawls’s death in 2002 generated obituaries even more embarrassingly pompous than the sort academics usually write for one another. He was, his colleagues averred, possessed of an almost superhuman kindness and humility. Several described him as “saintly” and judged that “we are privileged to have lived in his time.” One of them related how Isaiah Berlin had been moved by Rawls’s goodness to “liken him, mischievously, to Jesus,” and another confessed that when Rawls had once telephoned him “it was as if God himself had called.” The basis for such hagiography? Rawls was known to invite grad students for coffee, and to discuss their ideas with them over pizza. He would send a copy of one of his books to a colleague who was interested in it. And as clinching proof of supererogatory virtue, a favorite anecdote, told with reverent awe, has him standing in front of a window during a doctoral-dissertation defense, so that the candidate wouldn’t be bothered by light in his eyes.

EF

About the Author

Edward Feser

Mr. Feser is the author of Aquinas: A Beginner’s Guide and The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism.

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Illiberal Justice: John Rawls vs. the American Political Tradition, by David Lewis Schaefer (Missouri, 368 pp., $24.95)

HARVARD philosopher John Rawls’s death in 2002 generated obituaries even more embarrassingly pompous than the sort academics usually write for one another. He was, his colleagues averred, possessed of an almost superhuman kindness and humility. Several described him as “saintly” and judged that “we are privileged to have lived in his time.” One of them related how Isaiah Berlin had been moved by Rawls’s goodness to “liken him, mischievously, to Jesus,” and another confessed that when Rawls had once telephoned him “it was as if God himself had called.” The basis for such hagiography? Rawls was known to invite grad students for coffee, and to discuss their ideas with them over pizza. He would send a copy of one of his books to a colleague who was interested in it. And as clinching proof of supererogatory virtue, a favorite anecdote, told with reverent awe, has him standing in front of a window during a doctoral-dissertation defense, so that the candidate wouldn’t be bothered by light in his eyes.