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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... least , I shall assume that a deeper understanding can be gained in no other way , and that the nature and aims of a perfectly just society is the fundamental part of the theory of justice . Now admittedly the concept of the basic ...
... least in a reasonably advanced stage of civilization , the greatest sum of advantages is not attained in this way . No doubt the strictness of common sense precepts of justice has a certain usefulness in limiting men's propensities to ...
... least when arrived at by the more natural course of reflection , in that , by conflating all systems of desires , it applies to society the principle of choice for one man . And thus we see that the second contrast is 14. For Bentham ...
... least for confining it within narrower limits . Thus we can consider the problems of justice by reference to certain ends of social policy . Yet this approach also is likely to rely on intuition , since it normally takes the form of ...
... least when they are impartial and not moved by an excessive attention to their own interests . Or if this is not so , then at least they can agree to some scheme whereby their assignment of weights can be compromised . It is essential ...