The Ten-Minute Rawls

Here's about as good a brief summary of John Rawls as you're likely to find (link--and H/T Arts & Letters Daily). I have to confess I have never understood all the fuss about Rawls; he seems to me to have been a thoroughly nice man (I met him once or twice) who spent his life reassuring cosseted Harvard kids that their life of privilege was part of the Great Scheme of Things. But the idea that someday he'll be just another Herbert Spencer--ooh, that's cruel.

Plutarch, Rawls, Lord Mansfield and Buster the Dog, etc.

Brad DeLong linked my snippet from Plutarch on Cato the Elder, setting off an instructive thread about slavery (link). It brought to my mind the story of the Slave ship Zong, notorious from the JMW Turner painting, where Master Luke Collingwood ordered that slaves be thrown overboard so the owners could collect on the insurance (link). No one was ever prosecuted for murder in the case, although there was litigation over the insurance claim, prompting Lord Mansfield to say that there was "no doubt that (though it shocks one very much) the case was the same as if horses had been thrown overboard"—and if you think this is gauche, take a look at the argument of the Solicitor General.

A DeLong commentator remarked that John Rawls characterized non-human animals as lying "outside the scope of the theory of justice" – echoing Plutarch. The commentator continues:

Of course, Plutarch himself seems to have regarded treatment of slaves *and* animals as issues of "kindness and charity," while "justice," I suppose, applies to free people. Rawls would undoubtedly say that "justice" applies to human slaves, but still keeps non-human animals in the sphere of "compassion and humanity." [Martha?] Nussbaum … attacks Rawls with the critique that "justice" also applies to non-human animals.

Over lunch yesterday, Mrs. B tried to explain to me that “mercy” is best understood as some sort of subset of the “justice;” she didn’t persuade but she is the philosopher in the family, so perhaps I should defer to her judgment. It does make me remember, however, the story of the guy who asked the rabbi deliver a eulogy for Buster his dog. The rabbi said he didn’t do memorial speeches for animals, but the petitioner persisted, saying that he was a prosperous man with no family, and would make it worth the rabbi’s while. The rabbi, being a reasonable fellow, reconsidered the issue, and set him down for 2 p.m. on a Thursday afternoon when, he figured, there wouldn’t be much of a crowd.

Thursday came and sure enough, the synagogue was almost empty, but the rabbi gave it his best shot. After the service, his petitioner approached him and passed over a $50,000 check. “You know,” he told the rabbi, “until you spoke I just didn’t realize what a great friend Buster was to Israel.”