Philosophyspeaking topic
Rawls's difference principle: is inequality legitimate only when it benefits the worst off? If the rich getting richer also lifts the poorest, is that fair?
— John Rawls, difference principle
practice with this topic
Set the timer (5-30 min), take 20 seconds of prep if you like, start talking. Jot your thoughts onto the sticky-note board.
similar topics
- The first time you learn something, the world changes; you can never return to the person who did not know it. Some knowledge remakes you irreversibly. If you could have chosen never to learn, would you have wanted to stay your ignorant former self?
- Schopenhauer's hedgehog dilemma: hedgehogs huddle together for warmth in the cold, but their spines force them apart, and then the cold pushes them back together. Since human closeness brings both warmth and pain, are we all endlessly searching for that ideal distance?
- If people did not sometimes do silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.
- For an action to count as yours, you have to want it. But you never chose your wants; they simply came to you. Nobody can want what they want to want. So are even your deepest desires things that were loaded into you from outside?
- It may be shameful to be happy by oneself.