I would say that in our society it is the job of the universities to produce great minds. Great academics of the past include figures like Augustine, Abelard, Vico and Nietzche. Somehow, Cornel West and Harold Bloom don't seem to measure up. Probably the most important 'theorist' of late is John Rawls, the Harvard prof who graduated from Princeton in the 50's. Rawls was a good Cambridge liberal but made the point that equality was not necessarily a good. For him society should be structured according to the maximin principle, that is inequality should be tolerated so long as it maximizes the minimum --basically that the goal should be to make the poorer richer in absolute terms, instead of in relative terms. Theoretically, this could mean absolute equality, but most likely it leads to a society where wide inequalities can be tolerated and even encouraged so long as they serve a constructive purpose.

posted by Matthew Schmitz   [12:45 PM]

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