tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post433003262042253406..comments2024-03-29T03:19:09.227-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: DISCUSSION OF THE PIMPLE ON ADONIS' NOSERobert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-83147905038159817512014-03-17T05:07:32.521-04:002014-03-17T05:07:32.521-04:00J. W. F., thank you for that great citation. I ha...J. W. F., thank you for that great citation. I had never read it.Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-9975580748257451152014-03-16T20:46:14.896-04:002014-03-16T20:46:14.896-04:00Seth,
What you're calling "lottery justi...Seth,<br /><br />What you're calling "lottery justice" was mocked by the British socialist R.H. Tawney as the "Tadpole Philosophy":<br /><br />"It is possible that intelligent tadpoles reconcile themselves to the inconveniences of their position, by reflecting that, though most of them will live and die as tadpoles and nothing more, the more fortunate of the species will one day shed their tails, distend their mouths and stomachs, hop nimbly on to dry land, and croak addresses to their former friends on the virtues by means of which tadpoles of character and capacity can rise to be frogs. This conception of society may be described, perhaps, as the Tadpole Philosophy, since the consolation which it offers for social evils consists in the statement that exceptional individuals can succeed in evading them."<br /><br />Rawls' use of the idea of a "natural lottery" was clearly influenced by Tawney, whom he cites in <i>A Theory of Justice.</i>J. W. F.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07248247420303472121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-76500594532765280182014-03-14T07:33:54.683-04:002014-03-14T07:33:54.683-04:00I couldn't agree more with both parts of the c...I couldn't agree more with both parts of the comment. The hardest thing, I find, is to get even supposedly progressive academics in the privileged sector of American higher education to recognize the reality of their situation and function. That was really the motivation for the essay.<br /><br />See my early book, THE IDEAL OF THE UNIVERSITY, the chapter on the admissions ratrace.Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-78752580460892135492014-03-14T05:36:53.519-04:002014-03-14T05:36:53.519-04:00"...the elite private and public universities..."...the elite private and public universities are the educational equivalent of those gated communities in which the rich isolate themselves from the rest of America."<br /><br />Yes. And that's really the point of the exercise. Education functions to provide a veneer of rationality and fairness to the brute fact of power and privilege. <br /><br />You are starting from the premise -- one that I share or at least sympathize with strongly -- that the goal should be to invest in making people *better* than they otherwise would be. But the actual goal (as indicated by behavior) is to filter for desirable qualities before giving people access to opportunities. And among the most desirable qualities is what used to be called euphemistically "good breeding". <br /><br />Slightly off-topic, but a related conversation we really need in America is one about "lottery justice". By that I mean the "American Idol" model of competition in which a winner-take-all prize replaces real opportunity. Somehow because one "lucky winner" gets to have something wonderful, it no longer matters that everyone else gets nothing, It is a swindle. Instead of Rawls' veil of ignorance prompting us to put ourselves in the losers' shoes before deciding what is just, we're offered a lottery ticket and encouraged to hustle on by the homeless people sleeping on the sidewalk.Sethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16486234948199900568noreply@blogger.com