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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... actions of many kinds , including decisions , judgments , and imputations . We also call the attitudes and dispositions of persons , and persons themselves , just and unjust . Our topic , however , is that of social justice . For us the ...
... actions , and persons are thought to be just insofar as they have , as one of the permanent elements of their character , a steady and effective desire to act justly . Aristotle's definition clearly presupposes , however , an account of ...
... actions , but the utilitarian believes that to affirm this strictness as a first principle of morals is a mistake . For just as it is rational for one man to maximize the fulfillment of his system of desires , it is right for a society ...
... actions that we are prepared to render , accompanied with supporting reasons when these are offered . Rather , what is required is a formulation of a set of principles which , when conjoined to our beliefs and knowledge of the ...
... complications that call for comment . For one thing , it is a notion characteristic of the study of principles which govern actions shaped by selfexamination . Moral philosophy is Socratic : we may want to 48 Justice as Fairness.