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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... questions which are certainly of the first importance ; and I shall have to put them aside . We must recognize the limited ... question of justification is settled by working out a problem of deliberation : we have to ascertain which ...
... questions of publicity . This development stems from the essays of R. F. Harrod , “ Utilitarianism Revised , " Mind ... question of distribution which I wish to discuss . Finally , we should note here the essays of J. C. Harsanyi , in ...
... question of attaining the greatest net balance of satisfaction never arises in justice as fairness ; this maximum ... questions about their source or quality but only how their satisfaction would affect the total of well - being . Social ...
... question . Now so understood , there are many kinds of intuitionism . Not only are our everyday notions of this type but so perhaps are most philosophical doctrines . One way of distinguishing between intuitionist views is by the level ...
... questions of priority . We must recognize the possibility that there is no way to get beyond a plurality of ... question is rather difficult , I shall only make a few comments here the full sense of which will not be clear until ...