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This chapter examines the significance of A Theory of Justice (1971) written by John Rawls in contemporary Anglo-American political philosophy. It examines the basic contours of Rawls’ theory and addresses the Rawlsian self in what he calls ‘the original position’. Feminists and critical race theorists disagree over the potential of self that Rawls proposed to generate a non-sexist, anti-racist society, and philosophers of disability highlight its ableist assumptions. The chapter looks at the idea of a Rawlsian society being governed by a ‘just basic structure’. It highlights three issues: (1) the ambiguity of the concept of a basic structure separate from individual behaviour and other institutions; (2) the concern that focusing on the basic structure fails to address power relations between groups; and (3) that it limits the scope of justice to the nation state. While acknowledging the profound contributions of Rawls, the chapter concludes that Rawlsian ideal theory is not the best approach from the perspective of feminist, anti-racist, and anti-ableist philosophy.

This chapter explores the various disciplinary and political dimensions of Donna Haraway’s work revolving around the negotiation of the interdisciplinary problem of the Anthropocene. It considers Haraway’s works which range between feminist interventions in science studies, animal studies, and environmental criticism. Haraway’s A Cyborg Manifesto (1985) offers a feminist response to broadly Marxist accounts of the relationship between technology and history while also reconfiguring and responding to feminist forms of socialism. After briefly introducing Haraway’s contributions to standpoint theory and posthumanism, this chapter turns to an examination of her critique of science and her alternative way of considering the world in which the boundaries between the human and non-human disappear. Haraway outlines various ways to think about planetary change and develops a conception of the Chthulucene that captures the complexity of the present, including the transformation of nature through human histories.