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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... moral sentiments . But they failed , I believe , to construct a workable and systematic moral conception to oppose it . The outcome is that we often seem forced to choose between utilitarianism and intuitionism . Most likely we finally ...
... moral theory found in the essays seems sound to me , and I have tried to develop the theory of justice so that it avoids his objections . In doing this , I have learned from Burton Dreben , who made W. V. Quine's view clear to me and ...
... Morality of Authority 462 71. The Morality of Association 467 72. The Morality of Principles 472 73. Features of the Moral Sentiments 479 74. The Connection between Moral and Natural Attitudes 485 75. The Principles of Moral Psychology ...
... moral theory . Book III of his Principles of Political Economy ( London , 1883 ) applies this doctrine to questions of economic and social justice , and is a precursor of A. C. Pigou , The Economics of Welfare ( London , Macmillan ...
... moral character are to be encouraged in a just society . The moral ideal of justice as fairness is more deeply embedded in the first principles of the ethical theory . This is characteristic of natural rights views ( the contractarian ...