Viewers like you help make PBS (Thank you 😃) . Support your local PBS Member Station here: https://to.pbs.org/donateidea Thought Experiment: John Rawls’ Original Position We got merch! http://bit.ly/1U8fS1B Tweet us! http://bit.ly/pbsideachanneltwitter Idea Channel Facebook! http://bit.ly/pbsideachannelfacebook Talk about this episode on reddit! http://bit.ly/pbsideachannelreddit Idea Channel IRC! http://bit.ly/pbsideachannelirc Email us! pbsideachannel [at] gmail [dot] com Imagine that, instead of running for president, someone actually ran for Leader of the World. Literally. After their election, they’d oversee the construction of a just and fair society, from the ground up. Let’s imagine that person… is you. ‘YOU 2020!’ I’m so excited. This is gonna be great. You’re gonna do awesome… you’ll need some campaign ads, you should probably go on tour, practice your debate skills… Oh, and you’ll need some policies too. Don’t forget about that. Policies! How does the… world government… function. What are the specific … rules and distributions of power and resources that … policy … Oh boy... How exactly do you design a whole society? There are a lot of possible answers, of course, but today we’re gonna talk about the one suggested by philosopher John Rawls. A thought experiment slash methodology he calls the “Original Position”, found in his book A Theory of Justice. But, is his idea even possible? What would you do? Let us know what you think in the comments below! This episode co-written by Olly Thorn of Philosophy Tube: https://www.youtube.com/user/thephilosophytube --ASSET LINKS-- 00:32 Cities- Skylines - Timelapse Build of an American Mega City https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Wvi3vhsHzw 3:04 2 hours in 8 Minutes - A Sim City 2013 Speed Build! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geegcle9KLw 04:53 Adulting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMVz6HGGiQQ --FURTHER READING & SOURCES-- http://www.csus.edu/indiv/c/chalmersk/econ184sp09/johnrawls.pdf http://evatt.org.au/papers/enduring-significance-john-rawls.html --MERCH-- https://store.dftba.com/collections/idea-channel T-Shirts Designed by: http://artsparrow.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------- Written and hosted by Mike Rugnetta (@mikerugnetta) (who also has a podcast! Reasonably Sound: http://bit.ly/1sCn0BF) Made by Kornhaber Brown (http://www.kornhaberbrown.com)