Rawls, Dewey, and Constructivism

Eric Thomas Weber is assistant professor of Public Policy Leadership at the University of Mississippi, USA. He has published in Human Studies, Review of Policy Research, Skepsis, William James Studies, Contemporary Pragmatism, and Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society. He is the author of Rawls, Dewey, and Constructivism (Continuum, 2010).

"Eric Weber provides a well considered and carefully crafted analysis of the work of John Rawls from a Pragmatist perspective. Chapter six alone, 'Dewey and Rawls on Education,' is worth the price of admission." (Larry A. Hickman, Center for Dewey Studies, Southern Illinois University, USA) "Eric Thomas Weber's comparative study identifies a deep Kantian tension between constructivism and representationalism in Rawls. His well informed, very clear and persuasive critique of Rawls highlights the many resources of Dewey's constructivism and constructivist epistemology for democratic political philosophy." (Tom Rockmore, Duquesne University, USA) "Eric Thomas Weber's excellent book raises a constructivist challenge against Rawls's constructivism... Weber's Deweyan critique of Rawls's constructivist conception of justice points to the difficulty in grasping Kantian constructivism. In Rawls's writings, the reference to Kantian constructivism is so vague as to be essentially meaningless. That is one of the implications of this very useful book." (Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Tom Rockmore, Duquesne University Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews) Eric Thomas Weber's excellent book raises a constructivist challenge against Rawls's constructivism... In his short, tightly-argued book, Weber further develops the constructivist criticism of Rawls in creatively comparing and contrasting the views of Rawls and Dewey. (Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews)"

• 1. Introduction; 2. Social Contract Theory, Old and New; 3. Worlds Apart: On Moral Realism and Two Constructivisms; 4. Freedom and Phenomenal Persons; 5. Rawls's Epistemological Tension: The Original Position, Reflective Equilibrium, and Objectivity; 6. Dewey and Rawls on Education; Bibliography; Index.