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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... object to what I say . Thanks should also go to Michael Gardner and Jane English for several corrections which I managed to make in the final text . I have been fortunate in receiving valuable criticisms from persons who have discussed ...
... object of the original agreement . They are the principles that free and rational persons concerned to further their own interests would accept in an initial position of equality as defining the fundamental terms of their association ...
... and so the principles of justice , are themselves the object of an original agreement . There is no reason to suppose that the principles which should regulate an association of men is simply an extension of 28 Justice as Fairness.
... object should be to formulate a conception of justice which , however much it ition , ethical or prudential , tends to make our considered judgments of justice converge . If such a conception does exist , then , from the standpoint of ...
... object , that is , as a possible form of conduct expressed by a system of rules ; and second , as the realization in ... object . It seems best to say that it is the institution as realized and effectively and impartially administered ...