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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... Positions 95 17. The Tendency to Equality 100 18. Principles for Individuals : The Principle of Fairness 108 19. Principles for Individuals : The Natural Duties 114 CHAPTER III . THE ORIGINAL POSITION 118 24. The Veil of Ignorance 136 ...
... original position of equality corresponds to the state of nature in the traditional theory of the social contract . This original position is not , of course , thought of as an actual historical state of affairs , much less as a ...
... original position does determine a set of principles ( that is , that a particular conception of justice would be chosen ) , it will then be true that whenever social institutions satisfy these principles those engaged in them can say ...
Original Edition John Rawls. A final remark . Justice as fairness is not a complete contract theory . For it is clear that the contractarian idea can be extended to the choice ... Original Position 4. The Original Position and Justification.
... original position , as I shall refer to it , is that of the most philosophically favored 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 ...