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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 85
... balance between competing claims to the advantages of social life . Men can agree to this description of just institutions since the notions of an arbitrary distinction and of a proper balance , which are included in the concept of ...
... balance between competing claims from a conception of justice as a set of related principles for identifying the relevant considerations which determine this balance . I have also characterized justice as but one part of a social ideal ...
... balance of satisfaction . In the absence of strong and lasting benevolent impulses , a rational man would not accept a basic structure merely because it maximized the algebraic sum of advantages irrespective of its permanent effects on ...
... balance of satisfaction summed over all the individuals belonging to it . ' 8. Henri Poincaré remarks : " Il nous faut une faculté qui nous fasse voir le but de loin , et , cette faculté , c'est l'intuition . " La Valeur de la science ...
... balance his own losses against his own gains . We may impose a sacrifice on ourselves now for the sake of a greater advantage later . A person quite properly acts , at least when others are not affected , to achieve his own greatest ...