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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... rank ; and the moral doctrine they worked out was framed to meet the needs of their wider interests and to fit into a comprehensive scheme . Those who criticized them often did so on a much narrower front . They vii Preface.
... scheme of social cooperation must be stable : it must be more or less regularly complied with and its basic rules willingly acted upon ; and when infractions occur , stabilizing forces should exist that prevent further violations and ...
... scheme , the major institutions define men's rights and duties and influence their lifeprospects , what they can expect to be and how well they can hope to do . The basic structure is the primary subject of justice because its effects ...
... scheme of cooperation which men enter voluntarily in a literal sense ; each person finds himself placed at birth in some particular position in some particular society , and the nature of this position materially affects his life ...
... scheme of cooperation without which no one could have a satisfactory life , the division of advantages should be such as to draw forth the willing cooperation of everyone taking part in it , including those less well situated . Yet this ...