Abstract
In this chapter I will introduce an argument that will culminate in the next chapter. With this extended argument I hope to make a case for preferring Vico’s version of historical inquiry over that of Marx. Ultimately, and put simply, the basis for this contention is that the conception of reason found in Vico is more plausible than that found in Marx. I begin my argument by pointing out some significant weaknesses in Marx’s account of the faculty of reason. To illustrate and highlight these weaknesses I compare the understanding of reason at work in Marx with that found in John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice [66]. In this chapter, I am primarily concerned with Rawls’ theory as presented A Theory of Justice. I understand that his position changes in later works but I am concerned with his arguments in this work, not with Rawls himself as a philosopher of historical interest.
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Notes
- 1.
This point is important. Though Rawls does not say that the original position is a real position, he nevertheless assumes implicitly that it is possible to think as if one were in this position. This assumption runs directly counter to Mulhall’s attempt to downplay the boldness of Rawls’ project.
- 2.
This is because it is the supposed insights concerning alienation and false consciousness that establish material conditions as the proper objects of the historian’s attention.
- 3.
It is interesting (ironic?) that Rawls uses this terminology, which he borrows from Kant, when Kant believed that the noumenal self was unknowable.
- 4.
The principle is the same one that explains why one cannot will that a triangle have 4 sides, nor can one treat a triangle like a square.
- 5.
Marx tacitly and unabashedly acknowledges this point when he writes that under communism, when individuals are free, history will no longer be possible or necessary.
- 6.
The naming of passions and desires is one of the important roles of good art, literature and music, and is one of the bases of therapy.
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Noland, J.R. (2010). Addressing Marx Through Rawls. In: Imagination and Critique. Philosophical Studies in Contemporary Culture, vol 19. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3804-3_5
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