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 87
... Individuals : The Principle of Fairness 108 19. Principles for Individuals : The Natural Duties 114 CHAPTER III . THE ORIGINAL POSITION 118 24. The Veil of Ignorance 136 25. The Rationality of. 20. The Nature of the Argument for ...
... individuals need to be fitted together so that their activities are compatible with one another and they can all be carried through without anyone's legitimate expectations being severely disappointed . Moreover , the execution of these ...
... individuals who belong to it . Since the principle for an individual is to advance as far as possible his own welfare , his own system of desires , the principle for society is to advance as far as possible the welfare of the group , to ...
... individual balances present and future gains against present and future losses , so a society may balance satisfactions and dissatisfactions between different individuals . And so by these reflections one reaches the principle of ...
... individuals any more than it matters , except indirectly , how one man distributes his satisfactions over time . The correct distribution in either case is that which yields the maximum fulfillment . Society must allocate its means of ...