The Egyptian Revolution: Fruit of a Facebook page

Christian protesters form a chain around Muslim protesters to protect them as they pray in Tahrir square.

Today, the discussion topic in my Interfaith Action dialogue was the Egyptian Revolution as an interfaith movement. We had a couple of new people there, and on the whole, everybody was light-years more informed than I am about what has happened and what is happening in that country. Our meeting was at 5:30 pm Eastern Time, and at 5:30 Central Time was an Interfaith Core conference call (that was 6:30 pm for us). Interfaith Core is the national interfaith action group in the United States. The topic of the conference call was, of course, the same as our dialogue topic. All I can say right now is that I am so grateful that I am a part of that group or I probably would have remained in ignorance.

A woman in the conference call recited the beginning of a poem:

The Cure at Troy (excerpt)
Seamus Heaney

Human beings suffer.
They torture one another.
They get hurt and get hard.

No poem or play or song
Can fully right a wrong
Inflicted and endured.

History says, Don't hope
On this side of the grave,
But then, once in a lifetime

The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.

Rawls on Global Justice: The Law of Peoples

My Globalization professor Frank Thompson is most definitely a Rawlsian, and he's having us read a great deal of Rawls's book on extending a theory of justice to a global scale.

Part I. The First Part of Ideal Theory

1. The Law of Peoples as Realistic Utopia

1.1. What is the meaning of 'realistic utopia'?

Political philosophy is realistically utopian if it argues that a better society is possible given certain possible conditions. Our current society is one of 'reasonable pluralism'. The realistically utopian philosopher will consider and perhaps argue to what extent institutions can change such that societies come closer to consensus. Either that, or the realistically utopian will argue why "the existence of reasonable pluralism allows a society of greater political justice and liberty."

1.2. Conditions of the Domestic Case: Describe Rawls's sketch of a liberal society as a realistic utopia. What are its seven necessary conditions? (Two are contained in the first of the six below).

1. Realistic. In order to be realistic, its laws must take men as they are (he quotes Rousseau here) and base themselves on workable first principles.

2. Utopian. In order to be utopian, it must use moral ideals, aiming for a just society, one that prioritizes certain basic rights and liberties and "assures for all citizens the requisite primary goods to enable them to make intelligent and effective use of their freedoms."

3. Political Conception of Justice. Citizens must understand the justness of their society in political terms, "not by any comprehensive doctrine, which always extends beyond the category of the political."

4. Stability for the Right Reasons. Institutions must lead citizens to acquire "a sense of fairness and tolerance and a willingness to meet others half-way," leading to stability for the right reasons.

5. Overlapping consensus of comprehensive doctrines, "because religious, philosophical, or moral unity is neither possible nor necessary for social unity".

6. Tolerance.

1.3. Parallel Conditions of Society of Peoples. To what extent to the above conditions describe the necessary conditions for a Society of Peoples?

For the most part, the above conditions also apply to a possible Society of Peoples. Rawls notes that the 4th through 6th, however, only need exist at the "sufficient" level.  Also in this section, he writes, "Political liberalism, with its ideas of realistic utopia and public reason, denies what so much of political life suggests - that stability among peoples can never be more than a modus vivendi." Of course, Rawls believes that such stability is possible, eventually, but not before "have learned to coordinate the actions of their governments in wider forms of political, economic, and social cooperation."

1.4. Is Realistic Utopia a Fantasy?

Rawls addresses the Holocaust in this section, arguing that, even "knowing that human society admits this demonic possibility", Kant's foedus pacificum is possible. As hope, he offers the case of historic persecution by the Catholic church (ex. The Massacre of St. Bartholomew) in contrast to Vatican II Council's Declaration of Religious Freedom, in which "the Catholic Church committed itself to the principle of religious freedom as found in constitutional democracy."

"We must not allow these great evils of the past and present to undermine our hope for the future of our society . . . Otherwise, the wrongful, evil, and demonic conduct of others destroys us too and seals their victory."

2. Why Peoples and Not States?

2.1. Basic Features of Peoples:

Cooperation and Evolution. Why punish?

Behavioral economics is so fascinating, especially when combined with thinking about evolution and the ideal society. During globalization class today, Professor Thompson noted that to achieve justice in society, coercive government is necessary in order to punish as a way of guaranteeing cooperation.

It just so happens that yesterday, while reorganizing my files and folders, I came upon an article titled "Winners Don't Punish". According to this 2008 article from Nature Magazine, costly punishment is never a good idea. It helps neither the punisher nor the group as a whole, at least as long as reciprocity is possible. In other words, this article concluded that if tit-for-tat is an option, that's the way to go.