John Rawls '33

John Bordley "Jack" Rawls was one of the foremost political philosophers of the 20th century. His influential book, A Theory of Justice, now occupies a place in the canon of political philosophy next to the great political works of Plato, Aristotle, Locke, and Kant. Rawls received both the Schock Prize for Logic and Philosophy and the National Humanities Medal. Rawls' medal was presented to him by President Bill Clinton in 1999.

Rawls' first professorial appointments were at Cornell and MIT. In 1962, Rawls joined the faculty at Harvard University, where he taught for more than thirty years.