The May 2004 issue of the Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association has a warm and informative memorial notice for John Rawls by his Harvard colleague T.M. Scanlon. A few highlights about matters less well-known:
Rawls served in WWII and "his Division...would probably have taken part in the invasion of Japan, had an invasion been necessary. (Jack later argued forcefully in 'Fifty Years after Hiroshima,' that the atomic bomb should not have been used.)'
In college, Rawls "was also very seriously interested in religion, and at the time of his graduation he intended to enter the Episcopal priesthood. But the Holocaust, and his experiences in the war, led him to question and ultimately to reject the main doctrines of Christianity."
His classic work A Theory of Justice, published in 1971, "has sold more than a quarter of a million copies and has been translated into more than twenty languages. It is said that some of the protestors in Tiannamen Square were carrying copies." I confess that it is somewhat depressing evidence of the limited public appetite for serious philosophy that such an important work has sold only 250,000 copies after 30 years. (Didn't I hear that 1.5 million copies of Bill Clinton's autobiography have already been printed? But works of fiction always sell better....)
Professor Scanlon concludes (and all who knew Rawls agree): "We can all be grateful for this remarkable body of work, and for the privilege of knowing this brilliant, gentle man."
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