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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... utility and noted the apparent incongruities between many of its implications and our moral sentiments . But they failed , I believe , to construct a workable and systematic moral conception to oppose it . The outcome is that we often ...
... utility would be acknowledged . Offhand it hardly seems likely that persons who view themselves as equals , entitled to press their claims upon one another , would agree to a principle which may require lesser life prospects for some ...
... utility ” and “ utilitarianism ” are surely no exception . They too have unfortunate suggestions which hostile critics have been willing to exploit ; yet they are clear enough for those prepared to study utilitarian doctrine . The same ...
... Utility in Welfare Economics and in the Theory of Risk - Taking , ” Journal of Political Economy , 1953 , and “ Cardinal Welfare , Individualistic Ethics , and Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility , " Journal of Political Economy , 1955 ...
... utility in a natural way : a society is properly arranged when its institutions maximize the net balance of satisfaction . The principle of choice for an association of men is interpreted as an extension of the principle of choice for ...