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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... common point of view from which their claims may be adjudicated . If men's inclination to self - interest makes their vigilance against one another necessary , their public sense of justice makes their secure association together ...
... Common Saying : This May Be True in Theory but It Does Not Apply in Practice , ” in Kant's Political Writings , ed . Hans Reiss and trans . by H. B. Nisbet ( Cambridge , The University Press , 1970 ) , pp . 73–87 . See Georges Vlachos ...
... common sense precepts of justice , particularly those which concern the protection of liberties and rights , or which express the claims of desert , seem to contradict this contention . But from a utilitarian standpoint the explanation ...
... common sense convictions concerning the priority of justice by showing that they are the consequence of principles which would be chosen in the original position . These judgments reflect the rational preferences and the initial ...
... common good ; institutions satisfy its demands when they are to everyone's interests , at least in the long run . Now if this interpretation of Hume is correct , there is offhand no conflict with the priority of justice and no ...