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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... means to this end . By not including most of Chapters IV - VIII in the more basic parts of the book , I do not mean to suggest that these chapters are peripheral , or merely applications . Rather , I believe that an important test of a ...
... means of production , and the monogamous family are examples of major social institutions . Taken together as one scheme , the major institutions define men's rights and duties and influence their lifeprospects , what they can expect to ...
... means that the concepts of poetry and metaphor are the same . Justice as fairness begins , as I have said , with one ... mean that the parties are egoists , that is , individuals with only certain kinds of interests , say in wealth ...
... means of satisfaction whatever these are , rights and duties , opportunities and privileges , and various forms of wealth , so as to achieve this maximum if it can . But in itself no distribution of satisfaction is better than another ...
... means of satisfaction allocated in accordance with rules so as to give the greatest fulfillment of wants . The nature of the decision made by the ideal legislator is not , therefore , materially different from that of an entrepreneur ...