Friday, January 04, 2013

Can Princeton still flunk him in philosophy?

Newly elected US Senator for Texas, Ted Cruz writes in the Washington Post about "opportunity conservatism" --

We should assess policy with a Rawlsian lens, asking how it affects those least well-off among us.

From The Principles of Justice, by John Rawls (page 54):

Liberties not on the list, for example, the right to own certain kinds of property (e.g. means of production) and freedom of contract as understood by the doctrine of laissez-faire are not basic; and so they are not protected by the priority of the first principle.

UPDATE: Cruz used an identical formulation in his National Review Institute speech