Biography John Rawls

1 biography

1.1 life
1.2 military service, 1943–46
1.3 academic career
1.4 later life

biography
early life

john rawls born in baltimore, maryland, second of 5 sons of william lee rawls, 1 of prominent attorneys in baltimore , , anna abell stump rawls. tragedy struck rawls @ young age:

two of brothers died in childhood because had contracted fatal illnesses him.... in 1928, seven-year-old rawls contracted diphtheria. brother bobby, younger 20 months, visited him in room , fatally infected. next winter, rawls contracted pneumonia. younger brother, tommy, caught illness him , died.

rawls s biographer thomas pogge calls loss of brothers important events in john s childhood .

rawls attended calvert school in baltimore 6 years, before transferring kent school, episcopalian preparatory school in connecticut. upon graduation in 1939, rawls attended princeton university graduated summa cum laude , accepted ivy club , american whig-cliosophic society. during last 2 years @ princeton, became concerned theology , doctrines. considered attending seminary study episcopal priesthood , wrote intensely religious senior thesis (bi). @ princeton, rawls influenced norman malcolm, wittgenstein s student.

he completed bachelor of arts degree in 1943, , enlisted in army in february of year.

military service, 1943–46

during world war ii, rawls served infantryman in pacific, toured new guinea , awarded bronze star; , philippines, endured intensive trench warfare , witnessed horrific scenes such seeing soldier remove helmet , take bullet head, rather continue war. there, lost christian faith.

following surrender of japan, rawls became part of general macarthur s occupying army , promoted sergeant. became disillusioned military when saw aftermath of atomic blast in hiroshima. rawls disobeyed order discipline fellow soldier, believing no punishment justified, , demoted private. disenchanted, left military in january 1946. after military service, rawls became atheist.

academic career

in 1946, rawls returned princeton pursue doctorate in moral philosophy.

he married margaret fox, brown university graduate, in 1949.

after earning phd princeton in 1950, rawls taught there until 1952 when received fulbright fellowship oxford university (christ church), influenced liberal political theorist , historian isaiah berlin , legal theorist h. l. a. hart. after returning united states served first assistant , associate professor @ cornell university. in 1962 became full professor of philosophy @ cornell, , achieved tenured position @ mit. same year moved harvard university, taught forty years , trained of leading contemporary figures in moral , political philosophy, including thomas nagel, allan gibbard, onora o neill, adrian piper, elizabeth s. anderson, christine korsgaard, susan neiman, claudia card, thomas pogge, t.m. scanlon, barbara herman, joshua cohen, thomas e. hill, jr., gurcharan das, andreas teuber, samuel freeman , paul weithman.

later life

rawls seldom gave interviews and, having both stutter , bat-like horror of limelight , did not become public intellectual despite fame. instead remained committed academic , family life.

in 1995 suffered first of several strokes, severely impeding ability continue work. nevertheless able complete book titled law of peoples, complete statement of views on international justice, , shortly before death in november 2002 published justice fairness: restatement, response criticisms of theory of justice.