Description: The utlitiarian economist and Nobel Laureate John Harsanyi and the liberal egalitarian philosopher John Rawls were two of the most eminent scholars writing on problems of social justice in the last century. The contributions to this volume, addressed to an interdisciplinary audience, pay tribute to them by investigating themes that figure prominently in their work. In some cases, the contributors explore issues considered by Harsanyi and Rawls in more depth and from novel perspectives. In others, the contributors use the work of Harsanyi and Rawls as points of departure for pursuing the construction of new theories for the evaluation of social justice.
Review Quotes: "As befits a joint tribute to Harsanyi and Rawls, this edited collection explores overlapping themes from the disciplines of philosophy, politics, and economics - especially their connections via the theories of games and of ethical social choice, for which both these scholars' work had such enormous significance. There are notable contributions by 23 eminent authors, including Harsanyi himself, nearly all of whom have several earlier publications that have become widely recognized as valuable interdisciplinary contributions. Much value is added by the three editors' unusually thorough introduction, explicitly designed to relate each later contribution to the topics mentioned in the title. As a whole, the book serves as an overdue and fitting reminder not only of our great debts to Harsanyi and Rawls in particular, but also of how philosophy, politics, and economics have always had some close links. Moreover, many chapters exemplify very well how there will always be interesting recent developments in any one of these three disciplines that should be of great interest to practitioners in the other two." - Peter Hammond, University of Warwick