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The third album from Soft Machine (1970) was a double vinyl LP containing 4 long pieces (3 of which instrumental), one for each side of the record

I’m pretty sure that, if John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice (1971) were a piece of music, it would be a progressive suite from the early seventies: long, intricate, sophisticated, at times incomprehensible, and pretentious in its attempt to be as solid and transcendent as a classic while engaging contemporary instruments and sensibilities. Just like the artistic project of “art rock” (rock elevated to art, roughly a synonym for progressive rock music), the Rawlsian theoretical ambition of solving the eternal problems of political philosophy at once (justifying authority, sketching the shape of an ideally just society, showing that justice could fit human nature – or perhaps the reverse) was doomed to failure. And, in both cases, this was eventually shown to be case in the eighties.

This leads us to our second question, namely, what kind of music was Rawls playing in the 80s and later? I must confess, I’m still unable to assess the direction of late Rawlsian philosophy and to come up with an answer. Did Rawls actually started to play an altogether different kind of music, but, unlike Wittgenstein, was he also too afraid of disappointing the old audience to disavow the style and content of the 70s in its entirety? Does Political Liberalism, in other words, sound like a late Genesis or Yes concert, jumbling the newer more melodic and pop sound (retaining only the bombastic pretentiousness of the former times) with few symphonic tunes from early days, resulting in a performance of very little artistic and conceptual integrity (and quite disappointing for the fans of either period)? Or did his philosophy evolve more like the music of Robert Fripp, the long-time leader of King Crimson, who in the 80′ reinvented the Crimson sound from scratch, retaining only the philosophical attitude?

Chi è Michele Loi

Michele Loi ha scritto 26 post in questo blog.

Laureato in Filosofia all'Università degli Studi di Cagliari con una tesi sulla coscienza fenomenica, dopo il dottorato in Teoria Politica alla LUISS (Roma) ha iniziato una collaborazione con il CeSEP su genetica, enhancement e giustizia. Interessi di ricerca: eguaglianza di opportunità, enhancement, bioetica della genetica, John Rawls, diritti umani. È autore di Giustizia e Genetica (Bruno Mondadori) e di diversi articoli su riviste scientifiche, http://unisr.academia.edu/MicheleLoi

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