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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... Ends CHAPTER VII . GOODNESS AS RATIONALITY 395 60. The Need for a Theory of the Good 395 61. The Definition of Good for Simpler Cases 399 62. A Note on Meaning 404 63. The Definition of Good for Plans of Life 407 64. Deliberative ...
... end it is necessary to work out a theory of justice in the light of which these assertions can be interpreted and ... ends they each prefer a larger to a lesser share . A set of principles is required for choosing among the various ...
... ends . We begin by describing it so that it represents generally shared and preferably weak conditions . We then see if these conditions are strong enough to yield a significant set of principles . If not , we look for further premises ...
... ends is an essential feature of human societies , we should not expect the principles of social choice to be utilitarian . To be sure , it has not been shown by anything said so far that the parties in the original position would not ...
... ends . They implicitly agree , therefore , to conform their conceptions of their good to what the principles of justice require , or at least not to press claims which directly violate them . An individual who finds that he enjoys ...