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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... rational persons concerned to further their own interests would accept in an initial position of equality as defining the fundamental terms of their association . These principles are to regulate all further agreements ; they specify ...
Original Edition John Rawls. it is rational for him to pursue , so a group of persons must decide once and for all what is to count among them as just and unjust . The choice which rational men would make in this hypothetical situation ...
... rational persons , and that in this way conceptions of justice may be explained and justified . The theory of justice is a part , perhaps the most significant part , of the theory of rational choice . Furthermore , principles of justice ...
... rational to adopt given the contractual situation . This connects the theory of justice with the theory of rational choice . If this view of the problem of justification is to succeed , we must , of course , describe in some detail the ...
... rational to propose for acceptance , however little the chance of success , only if one knew certain things that are irrelevant from the standpoint of justice . For example , if a man knew that he was wealthy , he might find it rational ...