Rawls on religion
A friend sent this link on John Rawls and a collection of his writings on religion. Here is a brief excerpt on Rawls and the utilitarian motif that still underlies our polity:
Utilitarianism notoriously implies that we should maximize happiness even when doing so involves making some people suffer, and even when those people will not themselves enjoy any benefit from their suffering. Rawls argues that this is wrong. It applies to all people a standard of rationality appropriate to a single individual, and so “does not take seriously the distinction between persons.” Where there are no distinct persons, there can be no personal relations, and no community.
I haven’t read Rawls, and I found this an interesting look at his political philosophy as well as on religion. ‘Without faith, he was faithful,’ indeed.