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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... interpretation of this role . Now this approach may not seem to tally with tradition . I believe , though , that it does . The more specific sense that Aristotle gives to justice , and from which the most familiar formulations derive ...
... interpretation of this initial choice situation for the purposes of a theory of justice . But how are we to decide what is the most favored interpretation ? I assume , for one thing , that there is a broad measure of agreement that ...
... interpretation of the initial situation , then , by the capacity of its principles to accommodate our firmest convictions and to provide guidance where guidance is needed . In searching for the most favored description of this situation ...
... interpretation of the original position that I shall present as the result of such a hypothetical course of reflection . It represents the attempt to accommodate within one scheme both reasonable philosophical conditions on principles ...
... Interpretation of the Philosophy of J. S. Mill , " Philosophical Quarterly , vol . 3 ( 1953 ) . See also J. J. C. Smart , “ Extreme and Restricted Utilitarianism , ” Philosophical Quarterly , vol . 6 ( 1956 ) , and his An Outline of a ...