A Theory of Justice: Original EditionJohn Rawls aims to express an essential part of the common core of the democratic tradition—justice as fairness—and to provide an alternative to utilitarianism, which had dominated the Anglo-Saxon tradition of political thought since the nineteenth century. Rawls substitutes the ideal of the social contract as a more satisfactory account of the basic rights and liberties of citizens as free and equal persons. “Each person,” writes Rawls, “possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override.” Advancing the ideas of Rousseau, Kant, Emerson, and Lincoln, Rawls’s theory is as powerful today as it was when first published. |
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... accordance with them . Suppose further that these rules specify a system of cooperation designed to advance the good of those taking part in it . Then , although a society is a cooperative venture for mutual advantage , it is typically ...
... accordance with the principles of justice initially agreed upon . Our social situation is just if it is such that by this sequence of hypothetical agreements we would have contracted into the general system of rules which defines it ...
... accordance with principles acceptable to all parties . The condition of publicity for principles of justice is also connoted by the contract phraseology . Thus , if these principles are the outcome of an agreement , citizens have a ...
... accordance with these restrictions . It seems reasonable to suppose that the parties in the original position are equal . That is , all have the same rights in the procedure for choosing principles ; each can make proposals , submit ...
... accordance with rules so as to give the greatest fulfillment of wants . The nature of the decision made by the ideal legislator is not , therefore , materially different from that of an entrepreneur deciding how to maximize his profit ...