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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... Suppose further that these rules specify a system of cooperation designed to advance the good of those taking part in it . Then , although a society is a cooperative venture for mutual advantage , it is typically marked by a conflict as ...
... suppose ahead of time that the principles satisfactory for the basic structure hold for all cases . These principles may not work for the rules and practices of private associations or for those of less comprehensive social groups ...
... suppose that the parties in the original position are equal . That is , all have the same rights in the procedure for choosing principles ; each can make proposals , submit reasons for their acceptance , and so on . Obviously the ...
... suppose that the most rational conception of justice is utilitarian . For consider : each man in realizing his own interests is certainly free to balance his own losses against his own gains . We may impose a sacrifice on ourselves now ...
... 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.