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 95
... distributed , for in order to pursue their ends they each prefer a larger to a lesser share . A set of principles is ... distribution of the benefits and burdens of social cooperation . Now let us say that a society is well - ordered ...
... distribution of the benefits and burdens of social cooperation . Thus it seems natural to think of the concept of justice as distinct from the various conceptions of justice and as being specified by the role which these different sets ...
... distribute fundamental rights and duties and determine the division of advantages from social cooperation . By major institutions I understand the political constitution and the principal economic and social arrangements . Thus the ...
... distribution of natural assets and abilities , his intelligence , strength , and the like . I shall even assume that the parties do not know their conceptions of the good or their special psychological propensities . The principles of ...
... distribution of wealth and authority . Here we may be looking for a way to remove our doubts . We can check an interpretation of the initial situation , then , by the capacity of its principles to accommodate our firmest convictions and ...